


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap^HZ^Copyright No, 

Shelf..-'y_5G.&3V\ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






Ube Metecoboi flDarriage 


of a 

«ew Moman 



/iDario 'fives 

AUTHOR OF DEBORAH, Etc. 



IWew l^orft 

ROBERT LEWIS WEED COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 








2nd COPY, 
1896 . 





Copyrighted^ 1898, hy 
MARY IVES TODD 
All rights reserved 


AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED 
TO MY DAUGHTER LOLA 





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“ In the present day union in the name of the law is consid- 
ered the most important, and union by affection as less impor- 
tant. A time will come when union by affection will be consid- 
ered the most important and union in the name of the law the 
least important, and men will hold in reprobation those con- 
jugal unions in which union by affection is dissolved.” 

Herbert Spencer. 

« We have thought to make our marriage tie stronger by tak- 
ing away all means of dissolving it ; but the more we have 
tightened the constraint, so much more have we relaxed and 
detracted from the bond of will and affection.” 

Montaigne. 


5 



INTRODUCTORY 


“Call it no more the White City on the lake; it is 
Dreamland.” 


— John Brisbane Walker. 


It was inevitable that the new woman of the 
twentieth century should be born and bred in 
that marvellous city of Chicago. Inevitable 
also that she should partake somewhat of the 
characteristics of the wonderful “ White City ” 
by the breezy lake. Let us dwell therefore for 
a moment on the push, perseverance and brains 
which bid fair to make this city America’s most 
characteristic centre of an ideal civilization. 

Some cities, like some men, are born ripe for 
greatness, and nothing can seriously retard the 
fulfillment of their destiny. Chicago, more than 
any other city of fable or history, was so born ; 
and her career from her birth in 1837, as a city 
of four thousand souls, up to 1893, with a pop- 
ulation of a million and a quarter, has been 
one of god-like strides toward a unique great- 
ness. Indeed, so undreamed of has her prog- 
ress been, that jealousy on the part of those 
cities which once entertained thoughts of 
7 


8 


rivalry, has long since given place to astonish- 
ment. 

Still, notwithstanding this fact, Milwaukee 
easily remembers that Chicago got her name 
from a notorious little animal with a brushy 
tail ; while St. Louis recalls upon occasion that 
her first settler was an ignorant, runaway slave. 

Though these reminiscences appear damaging 
on the face of them, they are not so in reality. 
The idea is strengthened that everything con- 
nected with Chicago is marvellous in a way. 
The noxious little animal was a “ marvellous 
scent propeller, prophetic of the time when the 
fame of Chicago should reach all lands and all 
peoples.” The first settler was evidently a 
marvellous man ; a marvel of pluck and dar- 
ing, who freed himself from the trammels of 
slavery without waiting for the nation to do it 
for him. 

The site chosen by Chicago as her birthplace 
was a marvellous combination of tangled 
morass and low-lying prairie, extending inland 
from “Lake Illinois” — the original name for 
Lake Michigan. It is agreed that her river, 
before Chicago took it in hand, was a languorous, 
stupid stream, finding its way to the blue lake 
in an oozing, dawdling fashion, fed by a brace 
of lakes as lazy as itself. 

In 1837, when Chicago, the ugliest of Ameri- 


9 


can towns, asked to be incorporated as a city, 
her envious rivals at once, declared her to be 
possessed of immense assurance. At this time 
her inherent characteristics of push and indom- 
itable energy were scarcely suspected since she 
still squatted on her low, unhealthy site, and 
could no more venture a cellar than New 
Orleans. But upon becoming a city, Chicago 
determined to raise her grade, and, it is said, 
“ proceeded in the most nonchalant manner to 
ladle in enough of the surrounding country to 
lift her streets eight feet high. Up into the air 
also went her houses.” At this interesting 
period a person wishing to go a mile on State 
Street was obliged to walkover about two miles 
of steps. 

At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, 
Chicago had rounded her first one hundred 
thousand inhabitants ; had doubled this number 
at the close of the war, and trebled it in 1870 ; 
while in 1893, the enterprising of the whole 
world were rushing through her thoroughfares 
bent on seeing her stupendous World’s Fair. 

A predominant trait, in addition to her push, 
energy, and will-power is her democratic free- 
dom of manners arising from the fact that she 
is no respecter of persons. It is related that 
upon President Cleveland’s notable visit to Chi- 
cago, when the big police force was made a part 


10 


of the triumphal procession, instead of being 
distributed along the line to keep the streets 
clear : that it was all the escort of Regulars and 
National Guards could do to force a way to the 
position assigned them; and, when the train 
rolled in and the massive form of the executive 
appeared on the rear platform, — with howls of 
jovial greeting the dense mass bore down upon- 
him, the most fantastic mob of tatterdemalions 
ever seen outside of the Faubourg St. Antoine. 
Mrs. Cleveland’s sweet, smiling face blanched 
at the sight, — it was soon after the Haymarket 
slaughter, — and the greeting, though doubtless 
well meant, was the most unconventional ever 
seen. 

“ How are you. Grove ? Come down off 
your perch, old man, and give us a shake,” 
yelled the populace. 

That charming writer on Chicago, Captain 
Charles King, from whom the above quotations 
are taken, states that the assurance of the peo- 
ple of Chicago is best typified by her numerous 
class of commercial travellers in whom, he 
thinks, is found the “peripatetic essence of 
cheek.” He tells the following story : 

“ Once and once only have I heard of him, 
the drummer, being temporarily silenced. A 
quiet-looking man was among his auditors and 
listened long and intently to his glowing de- 


11 


scriptions ; at last, as he paused to re-light his 
cigar, the quiet-looking man inquired : 

“ ' What did you say was the name of the 
place ? ’ 

“ The drummer stopped with the lighted 
match applied to the end of his weed and simply 
stared. The match flickered and went out. A 
bystander snickered and also went out, but 
only so far that he could hear what followed. 
At last the drummer recovered voice and re- 
plied impressively : 

“ ‘ I said Chicago.’ 

“ ‘ Chicago,’ queried the quiet man in the 
corner, pensively. ‘Seems to me I’ve heard 
the name. What road is Chicago on ? ’ 

“This time the drummer dropped his jaw and 
cigar. 

“‘What road? Shade of G. Washington! 
Where have you lived, man? Why, every 
road ! ’ 

“ ‘ That so ? Odd, I don’t seem to recall it. 
What’s the name of the hotel in Chicago?’ 

“The drummer fled. Accosting the porter 
as soon as he could regain his breath, he in- 
quired : 

“ ‘ Who on earth is that blear-eyed, red-nosed 
microbe sitting there by the window, the man 
who never heard of Chicago ? ’ 

“ ‘ That, sir,’ grinned the porter, ‘ why that’s 


12 


Mr. , of St. Louis. He’s vice president 

of this road, sir.’ ” 

It goes without saying that when Chicago 
on October 8th and 9th, 1871, went in for a big 
blaze it was of sufficient magnitude to be 
viewed by every one of her three hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants, and to focus the eyes of the 
civilized world upon her. Over three square 
miles of her heart was burned, and she went to 
bed, after the fire, less seventeen thousand, 
four hundred and fifty buildings. But this city, 
which, according to the newspapers, is the city 
of many mighty states, and is a marvel because 
the West is a miracle, or according to Miss 
Bremer the home of Loki and Thor, the Super- 
natural Forces, proved after the fire that both 
the newspapers and Miss Bremer were right. 
Forty and two years had it taken to rear old 
Chicago. In a few short years the new Chicago 
was built after a marvellous pattern undreamed 
of by the old. 

True, Chicago’s fire was one of the seven 
wonders of the day, but what shall be said of 
her World’s Fair in 1893? I throw down my 
pen in despair, and steal for a moment that of 
John Brisbane Walker. 

“Did the conception spring from one brain like the 
Iliad? Were these buildings, every one to the unprofes- 
sional eye a miracle of beauty thus arranged so as to pro- 


13 




duce this marvellous effect of beauty by one master brain, 
or by many ? For never before in any age, in any country, 
has there been so wonderful an arrangement of lovely 
buildings as at Chicago in the present year of grace ! The 
hanging Gardens of Babylon, which some of us remember 
as belonging to a previous existence, were fine. There 
were some very fine things in Rome, especially when Nero 
was emperor and architect, but the common people saw lit- 
tle of his palace. In London, thirty years ago, there was 
a nice little show, and another, not without its points in 
Philadelphia, seventeen years ago. But, nowhere, at any 
time, has there been presented to the world any group of 
buildings so entirely beautiful in themselves and in their 
arrangement as this group at Chicago, which they call the 
World’s Fair. . . . 

“ Those English travellers, who have written of Chicago, 
dwell upon its vast wealth, its ceaseless activity, its enor- 
mous blocks of houses and offices, upon everything in 
Chicago except the side of it which is revealed in the 
World’s Fair. Yes, it is a very busy place ; its wealth is 
boundless, but it has been able to conceive somehow, and 
has carried into execution, the greatest and most poetical 
dream that we have ever seen. Call it no more the White 
City on the lake ; it is Dreamland,” 


ONE 


“The day of man has been. The day of woman is now 
coming. When the day of man and woman has arrived, 
when this king and this queen shall reign as equal sover- 
eigns of the world then will come the true day of hu- 
manity.” 

— George Willis Cooke. 

In one of Chicago’s old-fashioned detached 
homes, during the fading glory of the World’s 
Fair, a young woman might have been seen 
early every morning deeply engrossed in a 
newspaper. It was Rae Raymond, a typical 
Chicago girl, whom her mother often spoke of 
as her “incorrigible newspaper fiend.” 

Ah, those early Chicago newspapers, so swift 
to bring the world’s doings each day ! So com- 
plete — even if sensational — a transcript of our 
busy sphere ! Up-to-date, and in language all 
can understand, — nervous, vivid, sometimes 
witty, sparkling, or it may be, eloquent, if the 
subject admits of eloquence, but always enter- 
taining. 

Rae Raymond not only read eagerly many of 
the papers of her own wonderful city, but 
scrutinized those of other progressive commu- 
14 


15 


nities as well. Indeed, a paper of any descrip- 
tion rarely came in her way that she did not 
examine it with care, from the leading article 
at the beginning to the advertisements at the 
close. 

Long practice had made her an adept in the 
art of culling the news from each paper, and 
probably few experts could hive its sweets with 
so sure and swift a glance as this new, charm- 
ing, audacious Chicago woman. Rae often de- 
clared laughingly, when hard pushed in regard 
to her penchant for newspaper literature : 

“ Oh ! I was born with a newspaper neatly 
folded in each hand, and so I have clung to 
them ever since. I shall probably end by 
spinning newspaper literature myself one of 
these days.” 

Doubtless this singular proclivity could be 
accounted for from the fact that Rae sprang 
from a long line of newspaper men, her own 
father having been an editor of force and abil- 
ity. A man, it is true, having an arbitrary 
nature and strenuous will, but who was, at the 
same time, a fearless exponent of what he con- 
sidered “the fact of the business.” He had 
married somewhat late in life, more especially 
to secure an heir who would carry his name and 
his work on to future generations. The name 
of the coming great editor was selected, by 


16 


himself of course, with great care. It was to 
be Robert Roy Raymond, after an ancestor, 
great, though his deeds were unrecorded. 

Editor Raymond was so used to carrying his 
point in the long, if not in the short run, that 
it did not occur to him to forecast failure in 
the sex of his heir. 

But alas, nature since the advent of Eve, 
according to male tradition, has been perverse, 
and ever ready to do the wrong thing at the 
right time, and vice versa. And thus it was 
that at the right time it became a matter of 
record that “ the fact of the business ” was that 
a girl appeared instead of the coveted boy. 

It would be a pity to deface this fair page 
by recording certain strong expletives which 
followed hard upon the nurse’s startling and 
demoralizing intelligence. Indeed, so unstrung 
was nurse after the scene with the irate editor 
and new-made father of an unwelcome daughter, 
that it was some time before she could gather 
sufficient courage to appear with her little 
charge before the impatient mother. 

“What did he say?” was the mother’s first 
question, as she glanced with pardonable pride 
at the large, well-formed babe. 

“ I don’t clearly remember,” replied the nurse, 
with evident embarrassment. 

“ Tut, tut, you can remember something, if 


17 


you try,” coaxed the proud mother, as she 
showered kiss after kiss on the little face of 
the sleeping child. 

“It’s a g-girl, you know,” said the nurse, 
awkwardly, “ and he was so put out. I can 
only remember ‘ devil ’ and ‘ damn ’ and ‘ mess.’ 
I can’t rightly put them together.” 

The new-made mother said nothing; only 
held out her arms for the babe, and it was 
noticeable how long and clinging was her next 
kiss and caress. 

Since that long, tender kiss, something like 
twenty years have passed, and, in the midst of 
them has passed that irate editor, to a realm, 
where, let us hope, he was not greeted with 
such words as “ devil,” “ damn,” and “ mess.” 

The name, Robert Roy Raymond, so carefully 
selected and insisted upon by her father, like- 
wise has met with a change. Another failure 
on the part of the strong-willed editor to carry 
his point. 

He did not foresee that his child, though a 
daughter, would possess a will and a way very 
like his own ; and that she would insist just as 
stubbornly on carrying her points when her day 
should come. 

In truth, only a fortnight had measured its 
length after her father’s demise when that mas- 
terful young woman suggested, — it sounded 


18 


something like a command, — that henceforth 
her mother and intimate friends should call her 
Rae, for short, instead of “ Bob,” her father’s 
pet name for her. She followed up her sugges- 
tion by remarking very quietly, but at the same 
time firmly: 

“ Hereafter I do not care to be called by a 
man’s name. Men are all very well in their 
way, but I was born a woman, something quite 
different but quite as good. I shall play a 
woman’s part in the world.” 

Rae looked every inch an American queen as 
she closed her haughty little speech ; and, 
probably no queen had ever been dowered with 
a form more truly superb than this Chicago 
girl, or with a face whose every line bespoke 
commingled strength and beauty. From lier 
father came her majestic carriage and her strong, 
thoughtful brow with its straight eyebrows well 
apart over the clear cut nose with just a hint of 
the Roman in its outline. The sweet, curving, 
rather wide, full-lipped mouth together with the 
exquisite complexion and dainty chin were the 
contribution of the mother, in her days a South- 
ern belle. It is impossible, however, to give an 
adequate idea of Rae Raymond’s eyes, her most 
distinguishing feature, since they changed so 
completely with her mood. At times they 
shone out radiantly blue from beneath her dark 


19 


brows with the majesty and serenity of the 
deep blue sky. Again, when her brows were 
knit with impatience or anger, her eyes appeared 
to contract and become pale green in color. 
Like old gold they seemed when she sat lost in 
dreamy meditation, or black, when in sparkling 
repartee she flashed out her thoughts rather 
than spoke them. Her face was framed with 
the usual brown American locks said to be in- 
dicative of a character always loyal. 

“ That is what I fear, Rae,” said her mother, 
who had been looking absently out of the win- 
dow, “ that you will play your part in life rather 
than work, which you might do so effectively 
if you once set about it ; and, the play-life of a 
society woman, in the end, is the bitterest kind 
of play, — as I know by experience.” 

This little conversation took place while Rae 
and her mother were seated in the latter’s 
boudoir, which, with its dainty furnishings oc- 
cupied the front of the second floor. Rae had, 
as usual, gone into her mother’s room to look 
over the morning papers. Rarely was she more 
than two minutes in slipping out of bed and 
donning a warm woolen robe and wrap, and 
fleece-lined slippers, when she was ready to ac- 
quaint herself with the world’s doings since 
yesterday. It was a regular morning’s per- 
formance, and her mother, whose room commu- 


20 


nicated with the sitting-room by large folding 
doors, just as much expected to open her eyes 
on her handsome newspaper fiend when she 
awoke in the morning, as she expected presently 
to rise and dress. 

“Well, Rae, what is the news?” Mrs. Ray- 
mond asked, after thinking for the thousandth 
time, “ What a good editor is spoiled in Rae. 
Pity she is a woman.” 

“No news, mother, excepting Fair Notes. 
Just a continuation of the tariff gabble, the 
Hawaiian muddle, the money famine and conse- 
quent business failures. Just a continuation 
of the men’s determination to manage where it 
is possible without woman’s help. It appears 
now that the San Francisco gallants are think- 
ing of having a fair in their city, and are plan- 
ning to conduct it without the aid of the Fair. 
Reason why, women are so quarrelsome. 
That’s sweet reasonableness! So in accordance 
with facts.” 

“What is in accordance with facts?” asked 
the mother, not quite comprehending. 

“ Why — that the men are the non-quarrelling 
sex par excellence. The dear, sweet, meek 
things I I tell you, mother,” here Rae dropped 
her sarcastic tone, yet still speaking with 
strength and emphasis, continued : “ the fact of 
the business is, the men have not ceased to 


21 


quarrel, judging by their own accounts of 
themselves, from the beginning, — whenever 
that was. Right at the start, as the men claim, 
we find Adam quarrelling with God about the 
woman He had made to be with him. Only 
one quarrel have they had, to be sure, but last- 
ing up to the time of the Hawaiian quarrel now 
in full progress. And they are as ready now 
as ever, to say, ‘Depend upon it there’s a 
woman at the bottom of it.’ Pity that we 
women are necessary evils, otherwise they 
could make an end of our sex, rear men chil- 
dren only, and monopolize everything at once.” 

Rae had lately been reading the history of 
marriage which had something to do with her 
impatience this morning. 

Her mother spoke again : “ Why, Rae, how 
different the girls of to-day are from my time. 
When I was a young woman we never spoke of 
such things, never considered that subject.” 

“ What subject ? ” asked Rae, who was again 
reading something which had caught her eye. 

“ The subject of having children,” replied 
the mother, with hesitation and embarrassment. 

“ Of course not ! It’s a subject of no conse- 
quence, no importance,” replied Rae, without 
looking up. “ Three suicides and two whole- 
sale murders for California alone, pretty good ! ” 

“ Rae, dear, I wish you would not read the 


22 


kind of papers you do: then you would not 
know of the badness of the world and would be 
much happier. Or, if you must read some 
newspaper literature, please let our dear min- 
ister select it for you.” 

“Yes, I think I see myself going to your 
minister — St. Paul’s double about women, for 
advice as to what I should read ! ” Rae spoke 
in her most scornful manner. 

“ Then there is no news this morning ? ” 

“No, it is only the same old story, the mo- 
nopolization and exploitation of the weak by the 
strong, with infinite variations. There is no 
news, old lady.” 

“ Old lady ” was a pet phrase Rae sometimes 
used for the mother whom she always recognized 
as her “ best friend ” and “ best girl.” It sounded 
lawless, undutiful, impertinent, yet the mother 
did not mind so long as Rae gave with it sin- 
cere love and whole-hearted comradeship. 

But there was one thing Mrs. Raymond did 
mind, and, which haunted her with ever in- 
creasing dread, and that was, should Rae marry, 
what would become of her? Alas, for the rest 
of her life she must sink into a nonentity, and 
life itself become a hungry blank. She would 
belong to that hated class called “ mothers-in- 
law,” and after her daughter’s marriage, would 
be afraid to so much as visit her, except for a 


23 


short time. Very naturally, Rae’s husband 
would completely absorb and monopolize her 
to the exclusion of her mother. She well re- 
membered how it had been in her own life, and 
her own mother, too, one of the best of women, 
as quiet as a mouse, as meek as a lamb and as 
holy and helpful as a Saint Theresa. How her 
heart ached even now, thinking of that lonely 
old mother so suddenly bereft of an idolized 
daughter, yet not by death. 

Her pet idea in connection with Rae she had 
not as yet broached, and did not mean to for 
some time ; not until Rae should have turned 
her first old-maid corner. That is, the first 
corner in these new days ; time was when a 
woman of twenty-five was looked upon as com- 
pletely shelved so far as matrimony was con- 
cerned. Of course, Rae being rich in her own 
right could always wed, but she was less likely 
to fall in love after her twenty-fifth year. 

Accordingly, when that auspicious time ar- 
rived, Mrs. Raymond made up her mind to pre- 
sent her daughter with a new, charming, up-to- 
date “ girl-bachelor home.” She tried to fancy 
they would be girl-bachelors together. Why not? 
Girl-bachelors were of all ages, she had read the 
papers enough to discover that fact. That she 
once had been married — well, that should make 
no difference, she was perfectly free now to 


24 


choose her life ; they would live free, untram- 
melled, useful lives, — the regular girl-bachelor 
life ; do what they chose to do. Rae would 
eventually drift into newspaper work, while she 
would look up something to reform, or try her 
hand at philanthropy ; she had a full purse. 
As Mrs. Raymond lay back in her chair with 
half closed eyes, turning over these blissful 
fancies in her mind, Rae said suddenly: 

“ I must go back to Retta, she is doubtless 
getting up by this time.” 

Rae stepped quickly to her mother’s side, 
gave her a warm good morning kiss and then 
disappeared. 


TWO 


“It cannot be too often repeated that persons cannot be 
wedded whom Nature has not wedded beforehand. Nor 
can they be held together, except outwardly, and to their 
mutual degradation, whom Nature has pronounced di- 
vorced.” 

— Junius Henri Browne. 

Henrietta Spofeord was a bright and 
shining light in fashion’s circles, and was re- 
garded as a prize among marriageable men. 
This was chiefly due to the fact that this lovely 
belle was an heiress in her own right ; it was 
known that her fortune was large, though how 
large her guardian took care should not be 
known. 

Henrietta, when in her native city, Chicago, 
made her home with the family of her father’s 
partner, who loved her with a devotion almost 
equal to that of her parents for their only and 
idolized child. 

Her education had been carefully superin- 
tended, first by her parents, and when they had 
passed away by the wife of her father’s friend 


26 


and co-partner. It embraced the best and most 
expensive culture not only in the new world 
but in the old. 

It was while Henrietta was visiting and 
studying in one of Europe’s brilliant capitals 
that she met Sidney Gordon, a late arrival from 
her own city of Chicago. Although Sidney 
had been born in New York and bred in Chicago, 
he was neither a true New Yorker nor a Chica- 
goan, any more than Beau Brummel was a true 
Londoner. These cities are in reality virile 
masculine centres of business, more than any- 
thing else ; while this masculine exotic of fashion 
cared nothing for business. He had the man- 
ners of the Old English aristocracy, when time 
was a matter of comparative indifference, and, 
otherwise, was of the old order rather than of 
the new. 

Sidney Gordon found his fair country-woman 
surrounded by admirers of every description, 
from decayed princes, whose chief claim to 
favor was their blue blood, to merchant princes 
whose redder blood flowed freshly in their veins, 
and whose claims to consideration were based 
upon gold rather than upon pedigree. But the 
flattering attentions of these various aspirants 
seemed nowise to disturb her sweet serenity. 
However, when she met Sidney Gordon for the 
first time at a brilliant social function it was 


27 


observed that a swift blush passed over her as 
their eyes met. It was further reported that 
wittingly or unwittingly he hastened her de- 
parture to her native land and city. 

In personal appearance Henrietta was rather 
fragile looking, with a delicate, oval face, a brow 
of snow, fluffy, cinnamon- colored hair, large, 
childlike eyes of violet hue, a nose rather long 
though delicately cut, and a finely turned arm 
and foot. 

Upon arriving home it did not take her long 
to discover that the man to whom she had 
given her heart was apparently devoted to Rae 
Raymond, a formidable rival ; to add to the 
complication, she and Rae had been intimate 
friends from her earliest recollections, and she 
well knew that Rae was splendid enough to 
turn any man’s head. 

It was a terrible battle that love and friend- 
ship fought in the heart of this young and beau- 
tiful woman ; and, considering the arbitrary, 
monopolizing nature of love, friendship held 
her own remarkably well. 

The upshot of all Retta’s sleepless vigils was 
that she made up her mind to spend a night 
with Rae, and frankly talk the situation over 
with her. 

Henrietta wondered over and over again if 
dear Rae could be as much in love with Sidney 


28 


as she herself was. Alas for both, if this was 
the case ! To poor Retta he was exquisite, her 
ideal of perfection, flesh and blood it is true, 
but the work had been so cunningly done, and 
art had so assisted nature, that she was sure 
Sidney was the wonder and despair of all who 
knew him. Still such was her friendship for 
Rae, that she determined to return to Europe 
if she became convinced that Rae, too, wor- 
shipped Sidney Gordon. 

Accordingly one evening when they were 
both included in a box party at the theatre, 
Henrietta confided to her bosom friend that she 
meant to stay all night at her home if she were 
not too busy to receive her. 

“ I am never too busy to see you, Retta,’^ 
was Rae’s prompt response given in her most 
affectionate tones. 

It was not until Rae’s maid had left them, 
and the girls, in loose wrappers, were seated be- 
fore the grate fire, that Retta threw her pretty 
arm around Rae and said suddenly : 

“Rae, do you care very much for Sidney 
Gordon?” 

“ Why, — yes, I care a great deal for him,” 
candidly admitted Rae, feeling at the same time 
a sinking sensation at her heart, which warned 
her of something startling to come. 

“ I am so sorry,” said Retta, with an ardent 


29 


pressure of the arm about Rae, at the same 
time cuddling up closer. 

“Why, sorry? Are you in love with him 
too ? ” asked Rae, wonderingly. 

“Yes, dear Rae, before you were, I am sure. 
But while I love him deeply, while he is every- 
thing to me, I think I could surrender in your 
favor if I thought he was good enough for 
you.” 

“ Good enough for me ! Why, I’m no saint ! ” 
Rae laughed lightly at the idea. 

“ Though you are the best person I ever 
knew, I should have said he was not strong 
enough. You are what is called the new 
woman, and should have a new man for a hus- 
band, one who is willing a woman should have 
wide-awake brains of her own and the right to 
use them. You have as well a charming pres- 
ence and a devoted heart. Now Sidney while be- 
ing perfect of his kind is really an old-fashioned 
man, belongs to the old order of masculinity. 
It would be a dreadful match for you, Rae, and 
for Sidney.” 

“ Ah, you think I shall develop into a new 
sort of Xantippe, with a fiery tongue and a will 
and a mind of my own, eh ? ” 

“ There is no telling what you might develop 
into if you married the wrong man, Rae. You 
would get awfully irritated, and, if it was Sid- 


30 


ney you would make life a fearful burden for 
him. And you might find it too terrible to en- 
dure yourself, you are so high-strung.” 

“Ah well, one could not tell, but Sidney 
would never develop into a philosophic, penni- 
less tramp like Socrates. I could not imagine 
Sidney otherwise than perfectly arrayed like 
the lilies that ‘ toil not neither do they spin,’ ” 
quoted Rae, in an amused manner. “ In one 
respect, though, he reminds me of Socrates, that 
is, he is a delightful conversationalist.” 

“Yes, he talks well, yet he lacks the solidity 
of thought which you possess, and you will 
presently tire of his delightful periods and ball- 
room elegancy. A great gulf of hopelessness 
and wretchedness will then yawn between you, 
and you will find yourselves getting farther 
apart every day.” 

“ What a seer you are becoming,” said Rae, 
lightly. “ Whence this wisdom ? you frighten 
me ! ” 

“ Love makes me far-sighted, love and friend- 
ship combined, dear.” 

“Well, but if this exquisite barbarian is not 
good enough for me, he is certainly not good 
enough for you. You are the dearest little 
Cinderella in the world.” 

At this point of their conversation, Rae gave 
Retta one of her immense hugs and followed it 


31 


up with three or four kisses on the soft cheek 
of her companion, who exclaimed : 

“ O, I am not a woman with any ideas or 
aims. I shall always love Sidney with entire 
devotion and be to him any sort of slave he de- 
sires, society or domestic, or what not. He just 
suits me. There’s no man in the world for me 
but just Sidney Gordon ; and I have seen lots 
of men and had many proposals. But, — Rae, 
if you are bound to marry him I will leave the 
field to you and go back to Europe. He likes 
you best now, — still, with a man like Sidney 
that does not count for much.” 

“ Yes, he does seem to like me,” meditatively 
replied Rae. Indeed Sidney had tried in his 
charming way to propose to Rae that evening, 
but she had not felt entirely ready to respond, 
and had consequently parried his approaches in 
a joking manner. 

“I am sure though, I could win him if I 
tried. He was all devotion to me in Europe 
before he met you.” 

“ What is that you say ? ” asked Rae, sur- 
prised. 

“ Well, dearest, don’t be shocked. Sidney 
must marry an heiress. You know that he 
spends large sums of money in various ways. 
He has already made a big hole in the fortune 
left him by an uncle. His father has all he can 


32 


do to keep up these hard times with an extrav- 
agant family to provide for. There is a rumor 
in circulation that he is already hard pressed, 
and that Sidney is to wed you to put things on 
a firmer financial basis.” 

Rae felt herself suddenly becoming very cold. 
She wondered if Retta noticed how chilled was 
the hand which affectionately held her own. 
Yet she dared not withdraw it lest she should 
call Retta’s attention more particularly to her- 
self. There was a pause before Rae could re- 
ply in a steady matter-of-fact way. 

“And you think I ought to refuse him should 
he make a proposal of marriage ? ” 

“ That is good ! ” responded Retta, fervently. 

“ What is good ? ” 

“ Why, the fact that Sidney has not yet pro- 
posed to you, and that you are still unpledged. 
I know you so well, Rae. I was afraid that 
you had already given your promise true, to 
wed him ; in that case I am sure nothing on the 
earth about us, or in the heavens above us, 
would make you break it. You are too con- 
scientious in that respect. One of these days 
you will bitterly rue that characteristic, so ter- 
ribly pronounced in you.” 

“ Heaven protect me ! What a prophetess 
of woe you have become ! ” Rae ejaculated with 
a lightness she did not feel. 


33 


“ I know I am right in thus warning you. If 
you were infallible it would be right for you to 
make a point of always keeping your word, no 
matter how threatening the consequences. We 
are, as Ingersoll truly says, only fragments, and 
our knowledge is so limited, our vision so cir- 
cumscribed, that with more light we often find 
ourselves mistaken, and realize that the promise 
made, really ought never to have been made, 
and, having been unwisely made ought to be 
broken. It is but saying we are wiser to-day 
than yesterday.” 

“ We will not argue on that point to-night, 
my pet, for I want you to tell me what to do 
about Sidney, now you know that I am not en- 
gaged to marry him.” 

“ You need do nothing, Rae. It is for me to 
act, to regain, if possible, my lost place in his 
affections. You have bewitched him. I do 
not wonder at it, Rae, for you are a bewitching 
creature upon whom every goddess seems to 
have set her seal. I wish I had your queenly 
bearing, that my head was set on my shoulders 
in the way which gives you such an imperious, 
majestic air. I could hope then to be to Sidney 
all I desire.” 

“Never mind about the queenly bearing you 
are pleased to ascribe to me, you with the form 
of a beautiful fairy, a brow as pure and chaste 


34 


as the petal of a daisy, and a heart as tender as 
love itself, you are the one that a man would 
really love as a wife. You will be the true 
wife according to that most wonderful of 
French novelists, Balzac, who says, you know, 
that ‘ the true wife in heart, and in flesh, and 
bones will let herself be drawn hither and 
thither where he goes who is her life, her 
strength, her glory, her happiness.’ ‘ Superior 
men,’ he affirms, ‘ need women of oriental na- 
tures, whose sole thought is the study of their 
needs ; to whom a discord between their ideas 
and the means of satisfying them is suffering.’ ” 

Retta looked at her friend attentively, ask- 
ing: 

“ Did Balzac really express those senti- 
ments ? ” 

“Certainly, and Zola holds much the same, 
— likewise the rest of men.” 

“ I thought that was true of the old sort of 
wife that men no longer care for.” 

“That is where 3^011 are mistaken. When it 
comes to a wife, men at heart, I imagine, are 
still autocrats. They like, of course, to talk 
and flirt with a young woman of tact and wit, 
even cleverness, still, when they want wives 
they seek those women they believe will find 
their happiness in obedience and in docility, as 
of old,” 


35 


“ Then you think 1 will succeed in winning 
Sidney’s affections as well as his hand?” asked 
Retta, thoughtfully, “ yet, I don’t see, if I am 
the kind of woman men really like as wives, 
why Sidney should have become lukewarm in 
his attentions to me and so much interested in 
you. You see I can not help always watching 
him, he is so much to me.” 

“ That is easily explained,” responded Rae, 
who, not being particularly egotistical, readily 
persuaded herself that Sidney had not really 
cared for her, and almost mechanically she put 
her thoughts into words, “ I was a novelty, a 
new woman. The new women are not so ready 
for marriage as the old. They are harder to 
catch, being of a more independent disposition, 
and in love with freedom. Doubtless Sidney 
did not care for me, only wanted to see what I 
was like. Then he likes to talk. We are al- 
ways sparring. We have had many a charm- 
ing chat together.” 

Unknown to Rae her last words were tinged 
with sadness, which made Retta feel more than 
ever convinced that there was a warm feel- 
ing between Rae and Sidney. She said hur- 
riedly : 

“I don’t feel sure that I can win him. I 
have told you there is a report about that Sid- 
ney is in need of money, and that he is going to 


36 


wed you to put himself on a firmer financial 
footing. You know his habits are very ex- 
travagant. Such young men are necessarily 
very dependent upon money and think they must 
have it, lots of it. I have really more money than 
people think because my guardian has always 
had a horror of my being married to a fortune- 
hunter, and, in consequence, has somewhat mis- 
represented my financial affairs.” 

“ Then I suppose as a first move, you will 
see to it that Sidney is correctly informed as to 
your possessions ? ” 

“ Yes, and at the same time, I think it would 
be a good idea to make him a bit uneasy about 
your financial outlook. All’s fair in love and 
war, you know.” 

Retta laughed a little awkwardly, for she 
knew her friend well enough to know, in so far 
as misrepresentation was concerned, that Rae 
would differ with her. 

“ Hardly, but my agent did make rather a 
bad investment for me the other day. You 
can make the most of that fact.” 

“ Oh, I am so glad, for I do like to tell 
the truth, or at least have it for a basis. It is 
so much safer. You never know when a lie 
will trip you up. Now, that we have settled 
tliis worry about Sidney I want to try for some 
sleep. I don’t think I have had a good night’s 


37 


rest for a month. I must look fresh if possible. 
Sidney is so particular about appearances. 
Good-night, dearest Rae.” 

“ Good-night, dear Retta.” 


THREE 

“When the wooing of a mate was done with a club it 
was naturally monopolized by the sex of muscle.” 

The campaign of action planned by the two 
belles was very simple, particularly so for Rae, 
who was to leave the city for a few weeks with 
her mother on a visit to some relatives in the 
South. Meanwhile Henrietta was to use her 
best efforts to win the hand of Sidney Gordon. 

“ And you are sure that you will not be of- 
fended with me if I succeed in my purpose, 
dearest Rae ? ” 

The girls were in the act of parting as Retta 
made this observation. In a moment she 
would enter her carriage which was in waiting, 
and be whirled to a more fashionable part of 
the city where her guardian dwelt in a palatial 
mansion. 

“ Surely not, you little puss. If Sidney 
proves to be the man you take him to be, I 
shall always be indebted to you. I can’t un- 
derstand though why you want to wed a merce- 
nary wretch.” 


38 


39 


“ Rae, dear Rae ! please don’t speak of my 
handsome elegant Sidney as a mercenary 
wretch. That is too bad an appellation for a 
man born and bred to money as a duck to 
water. But I must not stop to talk. God 
bless you, Rae ! You were always a genuine 
friend.” 

The girls kissed each other just a little 
sadly, then Henrietta got into the carriage, wav- 
ing an adieu to Rae until borne out of sight. 

Henrietta did not at once go home, having 
made up her mind as she sped along to be 
dropped for a moment at the counting-room of 
an old and trusted employee of her father’s 
whom she called “Uncle Jack.” 

This gentleman when summoned, came 
promptly to her and was greeted by Retta in 
her prettiest, most confidential manner. 

“Uncle Jack,” she said, after being assured 
that he was in his usual health, “you are to 
help me win a husband, do you understand?” 

“Nothing easier, I should say,” he replied, 
with a twinkle in his kindly hazel eye. Then 
he added, with a little hesitation, “ I hope you 
have not had the bad taste to fall in love with 
a married man, otherwise I can’t imagine your 
needing any help.” 

“Not so bad as that. Uncle Jack, though 
doubtless you will hardly approve of my choice 


40 


— ^you who like common drudgery so well and 
care so little for fashion or fortune. I will be 
frank enough and admit that the man I love is 
not a coarse, greedy fortune-hunter, but a re- 
fined, elegant one. I mean Sidney Gordon.” 

“Sidney Gordon! H’m. ... As the 
world goes Sidney is not so bad. The man is 
a gentleman in the old literal sense of the 
word, that is ‘fine,’ ‘handsome.’ He has some 
brains, a fair heart organ, good education, and is 
a thoroughly agreeable person. Spends money 
freely, — you will need to be on your guard, — in 
that respect. I should think one of your 
smiles would bring any man to your feet.” 

Uncle Jack smiled affectionately and proudly 
upon Retta, patting her gently on the shoulder 
as he spoke the last words. They were stand- 
ing, Henrietta was too much excited to notice 
the offered chair. 

“I would like you to see that Sidney has 
correct information regarding my fortune. 
Please play the part of diplomat in the matter. 
Sidney must not guess that I know anything of 
it. I do not wish him to suspect that I think 
him in the least mercenary. That would hurt 
his self-respect.” 

“I understand, and you can depend upon my 
finesse in the matter.” 

Having thus spoken Uncle Jack and Henri- 


41 


etta exchanged significant glances and parted 
with a quick though hearty hand-shake. 

Retta hurried to her carriage, saying to the 
footman as she placed her foot on the step : 

“ Tell James to drive home at once.” 

Of late Henrietta had felt but a languid in- 
terest in her preparations for the various balls, 
theatres, concerts and parties which she had at- 
tended. She was carrying on a conflict in her 
mind as to what she ought to do, now that she 
had discovered Sidney’s attentions to her most 
intimate friend, liae Raymond. Belonging by 
nature to the old order of women, whose first 
and only law of nature is self-sacrifice, she was 
on the point for some time of returning to the 
continent. Unknown to herself, however, there 
was entering her mind some of the influences 
which help to mould the new woman, and she 
was beginning to do a little thinking in her 
oWn behalf, to see things from a standpoint 
somewhat different from the old conventional 
one ; especially on that most interesting and 
vital subject, marriage. It was impossible not 
to read more or less concerning it since every- 
where in paper, magazine, or book she saw ob- 
servations concerning it; everywhere, too, her 
eye was caught by the ruthless revelations of 
divorce scandals which she could not read with- 
out drawing inferences in regard to the con- 


42 


duct of the principal parties. It dawned upon 
her that while Sidney and Rae were capable of 
being piquant friends and enjoying snatches of 
social comradeship they were incompatible as 
to character, and likely, if wed, to develop 
antagonistic qualities that, in time, would make 
them hate each other. The delight in gilded 
halls of pleasures, in ravishing toilettes, in the 
keeping step to entrancing music, in bright 
repartee, in club life, in short the life of a but- 
terfly banqueting from day to day on sweets 
was only a passing phase of Rae Raymond’s 
life. To Sidney, bred as he had been to luxury, 
and whose nature had become that of an ex- 
otic, this life meant his real vocation to be 
continued till physical exhaustion should make 
it impossible. 

No sooner had she reached the conclusion 
that these two, so dear to her and so attached 
to each other in the present, were not adapted 
for lifelong partnership, than her mind was 
made up ; and, at the same time she felt her- 
self a new creature. The blood flowed freely 
in her veins once more, and the fleeting delicate 
color came back to her transparent complexion, 
the sweet affectionate glance was in her violet 
eyes again. When James left her at the front 
steps, she ran lightly up them, and upon the 
door being opened, she bounded into the house 


43 


and greeted the family in her liveliest manner. 
Even before her wraps were laid aside she said 
to Mrs. Parker: 

“Auntie, you must loan me all of your dia- 
monds to-night, for I want fairly to blaze in 
precious gems at what promises to be the ball 
of the season.” 

“ Of course you can wear them,” replied the 
good-natured, indulgent elderly woman, look- 
ing up from her paper, “ only be sure that Jerry 
is there to watch them.” 

“ Agreed. Come, Annette, we will go up- 
stairs ; I want to try on the last two costumes 
from Worth’s. Some alterations may be re- 
quired, you know I am thinner than when fitted 
in Paris.” 

It proved a busy day for Henrietta, and also, 
for Annette, the deft French maid, so busy that 
the hour was late when the “diamond queen,” 
as Retta was called that evening, took her place 
in a scene of bewildering beauty and dazzling- 
splendor. 

The large, elegant ballroom had been pre- 
pared for the fete with an eye to effect, wholly 
regardless of expense or labor. Masses of roses 
and lilies were everywhere intermingled with 
graceful foliage. From the tops of the great 
mirrors, suspended by pale satin ribbon, hung 
cornucopias filled with white lilies and their 


44 


great glossy leaves. The military band, which 
alternated with an exceptionally fine orchestra 
in discoursing sweet music was almost hidden 
behind romantic-looking leafy bowers. Fes- 
toons of pale pink, blue and white bunting 
with artistically arranged colored electric lights, 
made an effective ceiling, and at either end of 
the room, great silk flags, each color of which 
was brought out by incandescent lamps, added 
to the barbaric splendor of the scene. Also, 
the smaller rooms and deliciously cosy retreats 
for flirting were gracefully bedecked with flow- 
ers and flags. By no means the least decora- 
tive part of this fine ball were the rich varie- 
gated gowns of the ladies, together with the 
brilliant uniforms of the military men. 

Among the most striking toilettes of the 
evening was that of the diamond queen, lovely 
Retta Spofford. Her dress was a delicate com- 
bination of a dainty pale shade of blue satin 
and point lace, into the web of which diamonds 
had been woven. Nothing like this rich, be- 
gemmed point lace had been seen before, and 
the attention of the ladies was concentrated 
upon so startling and dazzling an innovation. 
Henrietta wore her aunt’s wonderful diamond 
necklace on her slender throat, and her own 
sunburst in the rich bodice. In her fluffy hair 
above her forehead blazed a glittering diamond 


45 


star. Her fair, shapely arms were encased in 
delicate diamond bracelets, while in her pretty 
pink ears diamonds flashed deflance to the won- 
derful necklace. All these flashing gems made 
her look as if she had but just stepped from 
under a California rosebush sparkling with 
sun-filled dew, and which a slight jar had trans- 
ferred, sunlight and all, to her beautiful self. 

When Henrietta entered the ballroom, almost 
the first person her eyes fell upon was Sidney 
Gordon engaged in dancing with Mrs. Mayhew. 
They were a striking-looking couple, their types 
of beauty being as diverse as possible. Sidney 
had that sort of beauty which Rosetti loved to 
paint ; that is, coppery golden hair, red lips and 
clear, delicately tinted flesh. He wore his hair 
parted in the middle, his brow being fine with 
somewhat arched eyebrows. Fine likewise, was 
the lower part of his face with its aristocratic 
nose, autumn-brown eyes, jaunty mustache and 
well moulded, though not strong chin. His 
form was taller and rather broader than that of 
average masculinity, and already hinted of port- 
liness with added years. 

What made Sidney, — more than anything 
else, — a much sought after and popular man in 
society was the phenomenal ease and grace of 
his manner ; then too, he was a thoroughbred 
in his treatment of women, and really appeared 


46 


to hold the fair sex in high esteem. He was 
also a good dresser of the Beau Brummel class 
rather than that of the Sir Fopling F. Flutter 
or Fielding school. Like Brummel he exercised 
correct taste in the selection of his apparel, de- 
manding that each article in form and color 
should harmonize with the rest of his costume ; 
thus producing a perfect effect of general ele- 
gance. 

In a way Sidney was unselfish, a character- 
istic which added to his popularity. Of him, it 
could never be said as has been done of certain 
London beaux that “ they came late direct 
from their clubs with their clothing filled with 
the aroma of tobacco smoke ; swaggering about 
as if their presence was a favor and nothing 
more was to be expected from them than to talk 
loudly on the staircase, eat a great deal of sup- 
per, dance as few dances as possible, and take 
care of no one but themselves.” 

Sidney invariably came in good season, bear- 
ing with him something of the delicate aroma 
and freshness of the morning; he spoke in low, 
clear cut tones, and seemed never to think of 
himself any more than a bodiless ministering 
spirit is supposed to dwell on its own happi- 
ness. 

He was a master likewise in that sort of 
come-and-go conversation which is the only 


47 


kind admissible in the ballroom, and never was 
he guilty of harmful flirting, of saying things 
with his eyes which he would not bring his lips 
to utter. On the other hand, he talked with 
the utmost freedom and dash as if without the 
slightest fear of being asked his intentions ; his 
taste in conversation was as sure and perfect as 
his taste in dress and deportment. Of course, 
the fact that ballroom talk cannot with pro- 
priety dive very deeply into the sea of thought 
was in his favor, deep, close thinking and pain- 
fully exact speech not being in his line. 

While Sidney appeared to dance with his 
usual grace and spirit, and to give due atten- 
tion to the festivities of the evening, Retta 
was sure she detected something like disap- 
pointment in his countenance, and noted that 
he was not quite as attentive to his partner as 
was customary with him. More than once she 
saw him glancing covertly about the room as 
if seeking something. 

“ Ah,” thought Retta to herself, “ society 
must have its martyrs as well as religion, patri- 
otism, art, science, love. To be a devotee at 
that shrine Sidney will, I am sure, sacrifice his 
love for Rae Raymond. I only hope I can 
render his mart3a’dom bearable, even pleasant 
after a time. With me courtship and early 
married life will be trjdng. With her it would 


48 


be the reverse, intoxicating happiness at first 
followed by disillusion, aversion, perhaps con- 
tempt. But I must win his hand for a dance, 
or secure his attention for a little talk. He 
must know without delay that Rae has left the 
city and that her fortune is, — well, not what it 
was,” — acting upon her determination, Retta 
soon contrived to place herself where Sidney 
could not avoid coming to speak to her. 

However it seemed an age to the little 
diamond queen before Sidney Gordon ap- 
proached her, and after some conventional re- 
marks asked in his courtly manner : 

“ Are you engaged for the next dance ? It 
is a waltz, I believe.” 

With a happily beating heart Retta replied, 
“ I came late and am comparatively free from 
engagements.” 

This reply was strictly true in both particu- 
lars, and Sidney never guessed the skilful 
maneuvers made by the fair diplomat in order 
to be sure of being able to dance with him 
when opportunity offered. 

“ Ah, then I may have the pleasure of being 
your next partner, may I not?” 

“ Certainly.” 

The dance that followed was a dream of bliss 
to Retta. To be borne through the inspiriting 
measures of a ravishing waltz by the arms of 


49 


the man she idolized, who was at the same 
time a perfect dancer, her ears filled with low, 
throbbing, delicious music, it was transport 
most divine. The only drawback to Retta’s 
complete happiness was the thought, that with 
their flying feet flew time as well. This dream 
of bliss could not last always, and she must not 
forget business in the midst of pleasure. 

With something of an effort, therefore, she 
asked presently : 

“ Have you not missed Rae Raymond to- 
night?” . 

“ Yes,” very quietly responded Sidney. Then 
just a shade more rapidly, “ She is not ill, I 
hope ? ” 

“ No, not really ill. Her agent has been mis- 
managing her affairs — losing money for her, and 
both she and her mother have left the city for 
the South.” 

“ Indeed ! ” Sidney dared say no more. He 
was intensely surprised and bitterly disap- 
pointed. He feared to betray emotion. 

“ I am miserably lonesome, now that she is 
quite gone. I scarcely know what to do with 
myself. Can you run up and help me forget 
for a time my cruel loss? You are almost, if 
not quite, as good company as Rae.” 

“ Thank 3^011. I shall be only too happy to 
call and try my hand at playing the role of 


50 


your dearest friend in her absence. When may 
I come ?” 

“ Oh, — suppose you come to-night, — since we 
have begun the new day together. It is now 
just past midnight.” 

“ I shall be most happy.” 


FOUR 


Is there any good reason why the male sex should con- 
tinue to monopolize the delicate art of proposing? 

The morning light was creeping into Sidney 
Gordon’s elegant apartments before that gentle- 
man chose to stop pacing back and forth and 
seek some much needed rest. He had returned 
from the ball in a mood of fierce rebellion, 
strongly tempted to take his life, and so end 
complications which made the future look dark, 
turn which way he would. 

There was his father using his utmost en- 
deavor to keep afloat on the present boisterous 
financial sea. Wreckage there meant social 
ruin for his proud aristocratic mother and five 
sisters. Then there was his own fortune al- 
ready undermined by heavy interest-bearing 
loans ; it was only a matter of time when ruin 
should stare him in the face, unless succor 
came from some quarter. And, finally, to cap 
all, it appeared that the woman whom he loved 
tenderly, was also in financial straits; for surely 
she would not have left the city so suddenly, 
without a word of parting to her friends, to 
61 


52 


him, who had been her devoted attendant upon 
so many happy occasions, unless something 
very serious had occurred. A large portion of 
her fortune Sidney knew, or thought he knew, 
was invested in South Carolina, and thither in 
posthaste had gone both Rae and her mother. 

“ If only I had been bred to economy instead 
of lavish luxury, to healthful thrift instead of 
demoralizing sloth, and could make money as 
well as spend it, I might be able to find my 
way out of this tangle, without selling myself 
to the highest bidder. . . . But, alas, I am 

too old a dog to learn new tricks, thirty-five to- 
morrow, and steeped in bad habits with muscles 
permanently relaxed. I am a thriftless tramp, 
a slave ! and a slave’s part I must play to the 
bitter end!” 

Thus soliloquizing Sidney in nervous haste 
poured a sleeping potion down his throat, turned 
off the gas and sought such oblivion and rest 
as was to be obtained by the aid of a powerful 
narcotic. 

It was noon when Sidney awoke to full con- 
sciousness, that is, to know that he was ill, too 
ill to rise. His valet came in answer to his 
ring and was sent presently for a doctor. The 
good old family physician who had tended the 
Gordons since Sidney could well remember, and 
knew their ailments like a book, was in bia 


53 


office and came promptly. Soon the young man 
was in a more comfortable condition. He ad- 
vised Sidney, however, to keep his bed for a 
few da,ys, take the medicine as prescribed, when 
doubtless he would be all right again. 

Part of this advice was strictly followed — 
that relating to the taking of the medicine. 
The rest was broken that same evening, when 
Sidney arose from his bed and by the aid of his 
faithful attendant made an elaborate and exquis- 
ite toilette. 

Reuben, the coachman, with the high-step- 
ping, well-matched greys, next took him in 
hand, and after some minutes of swift trotting 
left him in charge of the delighted and sur- 
prised Henrietta ; surprised because the hour 
was so late that she had quite given him up. 
Indeed she was sure he was ill, very ill, since 
he had failed to send her word of his inability 
to keep his appointment. 

She was in the drawing-room, playing whist, 
when Sidney appeared. Henrietta did not care 
much for the game, but was playing to make 
up the set. She could not well avoid doing so 
as an old friend of the family, a passionate lover 
of the game, had run in for an hour or so, and 
naturally the game was in order. As it was 
well on toward completion, Sidney insisted on 
Henrietta’s keeping her seat and seeing it to a 


54 


finish. He declared himself only too happy in 
being able to watch its progress. 

At its close some cheerful chat followed upon 
the topics of the day, when the group of whist 
players gradually dispersed, — her guardian left 
to attend to some business matter, the old friend 
went to his hotel, and Mrs. Parker, to her room 
with a headache. As the door shut upon the 
exit of the last whist player, Retta exclaimed : 

“ Come with me, please, to the music-room. 
It is so lonely in this great, gloomy drawing- 
room.” 

Henrietta had a horror of gloomy houses and 
rooms, no matter what sums their sombre rich- 
ness cost ; and when the palatial residence of 
her guardian was in construction she made a 
special plea that the music-room should not be 
too big. A large room, she declared, could 
never be cosy and homelike. 

Accordingly the music-room, which in reality 
was her favorite downstairs sitting-room, was 
not larger than an ordinary parlor. Sidney had 
never entered this room before, and no sooner 
did he stand upon its threshold than he ex- 
claimed in pleased surprise : 

“ Ah, a fairy scene ! ” 

“Do you think so?” replied Retta, a flush of 
pleasure mantling her cheek. 

It was indeed a fairylike apartment in which 


55 


chaste elegance was wedded to cosiness and 
comfort. There were but three colors used in 
its decoration ; creamy white, pale blue, and 
fine gold. The walls, furniture and border of 
the floor about the rug had been finished most 
artistically in creamy white and gold tints; the 
exquisite ceiling in delicate blue with cupids 
0 blowing horns. What gave an especial air of 
cosiness to the apartment was the roomy grate 
filled with glowing coals, on either side of which 
were pretty shelves of books, quite near to one’s 
hand as one sat in a reposeful easy chair by the 
cheerful fire. Study lamps, Avith beautifully 
designed shades, were used in preference to the 
more modern electric lights, as being conducive 
to an old-fashioned home atmosphere and feel- 
ing. Pictures of domestic life and love, as well 
as one or two of art life, by famous artists, 
hung upon the walls. A grand piano had been 
refused admittance, and an upright substituted, 
because Retta was determined that music should 
not be too prominent a feature in this snuggery. 
Besides the piano there was an old Cremona 
violin, a guitar, a banjo, a flute and a mandolin 
for the lovers of those instruments. Retta, 
however, confined her own musical acquisition 
to the piano and to vocal culture. 

While Sidney looked pale with dark rings 
clearly distinguishable about his soft brown 


56 


eyes, Retta had never looked fresher, or more 
graceful and beautiful than when she seated 
herself near him by the glowing fireplace. 

Her dress of ivory white satin was princess 
in style, having a Watteau pleat in the back 
and a demi-train. The neck was cut square in 
front and back and trimmed with duchess lace 
and pearl embroidery. She wore pearl jewelry 
with the exception of the tiny gold comb sur- 
mounting a saucy pug into which her back hair 
had been arranged. A mass of fluffy frizzes 
framed her forehead bewitchingly. 

“ By the way,” began Sidney, after some 
desultory talk, suddenly transferring his glance 
from the enticing red coals, which occasionally 
tossed up a flickering jet of flame, to Retta’s 
fair face, “ Some one was telling me yesterday 
that you sang most beautifully. If that is true, 
why do we not hear you? Why hide your 
light under a bushel?” 

From this remark Henrietta was sure Uncle 
Jack had begun his diplomatic mission. 

“ Oh, I do not sing, excepting here, as a rule, 
for two good and sufficient reasons.” 

“ And what are the reasons ? ” interrogated 
Sidney. 

“ Lack of courage, one ; lack of voice, two. 
The first would be sufficient to deter me from 
singing before strangers; the second prevents 


57 


any attempt on my part to sing in a large 
room.” 

“ Allow me to conduct you to the piano since 
neither of your reasons holds good this evening. 
We have known each other a long time, and 
the room is not large.” 

Thus speaking Sidney rose and offered his 
arm to Retta, who felt that she could not do 
otherwise than accede to his wishes. 

It was quite true that Henrietta’s voice was 
neither splendid nor powerful, but instead, a 
moderately full, lovely soprano of a melodious, 
tender quality. It had been trained by the 
best teachers money could procure, Francesco 
Cortesi himself having been one of Retta’s 
teachers. Each tone was perfectly placed and 
tenderly sweet, — enchantingly so when she sang 
her favorite arias and love ballads. To-night 
she chose to sing for Sidney that German gem 
entitled “ Liebesfreude ” (Love’s joy). 

Translated the song runs as follows — though 
the words divorced from the love-intoxicating 
music, are but a faint reflection of the original : 

“ Ah ! naught in this life will compare, 

Nor rank, nor gold, nor jewels rare, 

’Tis love fills every part — 

Ardent hopes, timid fears. 

Reign by turns, and I shed happy tears. 

All is joy, all is bliss. 

Oh ! there’s naught in this life like this.” 


58 


Retta sang with a rapturous abandonment, as 
became a passionate love song; but having 
finished it she paid but little heed to Sidney’s 
eloquent words of praise. She sank into the 
nearest chair, breathing quickly and with eyes 
rapidly filling with tears. She could keep up 
no longer. Her wayward strength and playful 
spirit of bravado now deserted her. In her 
helplessness she cast one appealing look at 
Sidney. Oh, the look of a woman whose heart 
is filled with tender, uncontrollable love! 

Sidney was at her side in an instant. He 
caught both her slender, delicate hands in his, 
and with eyes eagerly searching hers, mur- 
mured : 

“ Can it be possible, dear Retta, that you care 
for me, that I am so fortunate as to have won 
your priceless love ? ” 


FIVE 


“The ambition and avarice of the clergy in the Middle 
Ages, laid the rest of the world under contribution in the 
business of Marriage, made it a sacrament, obscured the 
real essence and nature of it, and wrested it out of the 
hands of the civil power, as the outward and public recog- 
nition of it, to secure it to themselves ; after which a man 
and woman could not marry but for the emolument of the 
Church. A newly married couple were not suffered to live 
together for a given time, unless they paid the Church for 
a dispensation. A man was not allowed Christian burial 
unless he bequeathed something to the Church. In short, 
a man could neither come into the world, continue in it, 
nor go out of it, without being laid under contribution by 
the clergy.” 

— Alexander's History of Women, Vol. I. 

Rae Raymond had one excellent trait of 
character, which, judging by the fiction of the 
day, was not common to girls who have been 
disappointed in love. She had learned to mask 
lier emotions. No one guessed, not even her 
mother, that Sidney’s proposal to Retta, follow- 
ing immediately upon her own departure from 
the city had given her the keenest pain her life 
had ever known. 

Still, while she seemed outwardly the same, 
except perhaps a little more subdued and sym- 

59 


60 


pathetic in her eveiyday intercourse with peo- 
ple, this love experience, nipped in the bud, 
was a turning point in her life. She returned 
to Chicago with her mother, determined to end 
her career as a society belle, arrange her 
financial affairs for a long leave of absence, see 
the world, and then settle down to some useful 
kind of work. 

Mrs.. Raymond was delighted with Rae’s 
program, and readily agreed to spend the next 
two years abroad, thinking “ when we return I 
shall build the cosy girl-bachelor home and we 
will begin new careers for ourselves.” 

Scarcely, however, had they returned from 
their southern trip than Retta came with flying 
feet and exuberant kisses to announce the ap- 
proaching great society event, that of her mar- 
riage to Sidney Gordon. 

“ And you will be my maid of honor, dearest 
Rae ? I know you will since you have ever 
been my honorable friend.” 

To make sure of a “ Yes,” Retta seated her- 
self on Rae’s lap and hugged and kissed her 
until Rae laughingly assented. 

“ When is the happy event to take place ? 1 
just got in this morning. You know I have 
been out of the swim.” 

Rae did not, of course, reveal the fact that 
she had been in no mood for some time to in- 


61 


dulge in her passion for newspaper literature. 
She had been reading instead, most sedulously, 
essays by Emerson. Indeed, so constantly, 
during the stay in the South, by night as well 
as by day, had the books of the Concord sage 
been in her hands, that her mother now began 
to speak of her laughingly as a “ disciple of 
Emerson,” instead of, as formerly, “ my news- 
paper fiend.” 

“ Why, to-morrow, dear, to-morrow ! Say 
yes, quick, for I must hasten home.” 

Rae laughed and said “yes,” as quickly as 
any one could desire, pinching Retta’s cheek at 
the same time. 

“ That’s a dear. Oh, by the way, I have 
brought you a present. You know how we 
have always admired auntie’s diamond necklace. 
Well, she has made me a bridal present of it, 
and I have bought for you, one as nearly like it 
as could be found in New York.” 

Retta produced from her bag as she spoke a 
beautiful box out of which she drew the spark- 
ling gems. 

Rae could only murmur as Retta fastened 
this dream of diamond splendor on her neck : 

“ Ah, Retta, you were always too generous, 
too generous ! ” 

The wedding took place in one of the fine 
Episcopal churches of the city. To this church 


62 


Retta had belonged for some years, being among 
its most distinguished members, distinguished 
not so much from the fact of her wealth as on 
account of her charities and good works. 

The wedding, one of the most beautiful of 
the season, was pervaded by the spirit of Easter. 
This could not be otherwise, since upon enter- 
ing the church you were at once reminded of 
a field of lilies with palms waving over them. 
The altar rail and the choir were quite hidden 
by great Easter lilies, displayed against a back- 
ground' ef tropical foliage. Garlands of lilies 
stretched in every available place, while on the 
top of each pew was a cluster fastened by bows 
of broad white satin ribbon. 

The bridal party entered to the music of 
Lohengrin’s march. 

Retta looked very beautiful in her robe of 
satin de Lyons, trimmed with the rare old lace 
that had been worn by her mother at her own 
wedding. Above her exquisite veil nodded a 
diamond aigrette, the bridal gift of Sidney. 

Rae Raymond was dressed charmingly in 
white over green, and carried a bouquet of 
white lilacs in her hand. The bridesmaids wore 
gowns of the same material, each of a different 
color. 

Notwithstanding the organist played so ten- 
derly, during the ceremony, pretty love airs, 


63 


as “Call Me Thine Own,” “Believe me if all 
those endearing young charms,” and the like, 
Rae gave her whole attention to the ceremony 
itself. Now, as lovers, when matrimonially in- 
clined, are notoriously blind and deaf and 
stupid, it may not be amiss to transcribe in this 
place the orthodox views and vows to which 
Rae Raymond listened with keenest attention 
at the beautiful white wedding. 

“ Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in 
the sight of God, and in the face of this com- 
pany, to join together this Man and thi'" Woman 
in holy Matrimony; which * * * is com- 

mended of Saint Paul to be honorable among 
all men : and therefore is not to be entered 
into unadvisedly or lightly ; but reverently, dis- 
creetly, advisedly, soberly and in the fear of 
God. Into this holy estate these two persons 
present come now to be joined. If any man 
can show just cause why they may not lawfully 
be joined together, let him now speak, or else 
hereafter forever hold his peace.” 

The minister paused a moment, then pro- 
ceeded addressing more particularly the couple 
to be married. 

“ I require and charge you both, as ye will 
answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when 
the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that 
if either of you know any impediment, why ye 


64 


may not be lawfully joined together in Matri- 
mony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well 
assured that if any persons are joined together 
otherwise than as God’s Word doth allow, their 
marriage is not lawful.” 

No impediment being alleged by any one, the 
minister now' addressed himself to Sidney : 

“Sidney, wilt thou have this Woman to thy 
wedded wife, to live together after God’s ordi- 
nance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? Wilt 
thou love her, comfort her, honor her and keep 
her in sickness and in health ; and forsaking 
all others, keep thee only unto her, so long as 
ye both shall live ? ” 

“I will,” promptly replied Sidney. 

The minister then turned to Retta and said : 
“ Henrietta, wilt thou have this Man to thy 
wedded husband, to live together after God’s 
ordinance, in the holy estate of Matrimony? 
Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honor 
and keep him in sickness and in health ; and, 
forsaking all others, keep thee only unto him, 
so long as ye both shall live ? ” 

Retta was only too happy to make the re- 
quired promise, 

“ I will.” 

The minister then asked : 

“ Who giveth this Woman to be married to 
this Man ? ” 


65 


Retta’s guardian here “gave her away in 
place of her father. The minister having 
placed Sidney’s right hand in Retta’s right 
hand, had Sidney repeat after him the following: 

“ I Sidney Gordon take thee Henrietta Spof- 
ford to my wedded Wife, to have and to hold 
from this day forward, for better for worse, for 
richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to 
love and to cherish, till death us do part, ac- 
cording to God’s holy ordinance ; and thereto I 
plight thee my troth.” 

Sidney and Retta then loosed their hands 
when Retta with her right hand took Sidney 
by his right and repeated the following formula 
after the minister : 

“ I Henrietta Spofford take thee Sydney Gor- 
don to my wedded Husband, to have and to 
hold, from this day forward, for better for 
worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in 
health, to love, cherish and to obey, till death 
us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance ; 
and thereto I give thee my troth.” 

At this point in the ceremony Sidney placed 
upon the fourth finger of Retta’s left hand a 
gold ring and repeated after the minister : 

“ With this Ring I thee wed, and with all my 
worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. Amen.” 


66 


Here followed a prayer by the minister, after 
which he joined Sidney’s and Retta’s right 
hands, saying solemnly : 

“ Those whom God hath joined together let 
no man put asunder,” then added: 

“ Forasmuch as Sidney Gordon and Henrietta 
Spofford have consented together in holy wed- 
lock, and have witnessed the same before God 
and this company, and thereto have given and 
pledged their troth, each to the other, and have 
declared the same by giving and receiving a 
Ring, and by joining hands ; I pronounce that 
they are Man and Wife: In the name of the 
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 
Amen.” 

The minister’s blessing on the newly-made 
man and wife completed the ceremony. 

“ God the father, God the Son, God the Holy 
Ghost bless, preserve and keep you ; the Lord 
mercifully with His favor look upon you, and 
fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace ; 
that ye may so live together in this life, that in 
the world to come ye may have life everlasting. 
Amen.” 

“ How dreadful,” was Rae’s feeling at the 
close, “ to make young creatures to whom the 
future is a sealed volume, promise in that 
wholesale way ! No wonder there is, with 
added thoughtfulness, an increasing tendency 


67 


to single-blessedness. As for me, I would 
rather die than run such a risk of perjuring 
myself. One can only love what is lovely, 
honor the honorable, serve where conscience 
dictates; and as for pledging oneself to live 
with a person for the rest of your life, when 
you have no means of knowing whether it will 
be right or possible, that is criminal, conven- 
tional, servile docility ! Heaven help me to 
walk alone through life rather than pledge 
myself in so heedless and benighted a fashion.” 


SIX 


Marriage? A leap iu the dark. Men and women are on 
their best behavior before marriage, largely because not 
sure of winning the other. Are they not on their worst 
behavior after marriage partly for the reason that they are 
too sure of each other ? 

How many people go aboard an ocean 
steamer, leaving the Old World for the New or 
the New for the Old, simply to forget, to begin 
life over again? Many I ween. And old 
ocean as if cognizant of this fact proceeds to 
shake these wretches, demoralize their physical 
basis, lay them low on tossing beds where they 
just manage not to turn inside out. When this 
process has gone on until her victims are quite 
sure ’tis better to fly to ills unknown than 
longer endure those too well experienced — ah, 
then come the beautiful days of convalescence ! 
Long, sweet intervals full of a divine calm, the 
sky above so clear, so blue, so benign. And 
the ocean? Who can describe the charms of 
the ocean now that she smiles upon you, dances 
for you, coaxes you into good humor by a thou- 
sand subtle evanescent wiles? You end by 
falling in love with her, this charmer of old, 
and And yourself sighing with regret as you 
68 


69 


leave her, even as you sighed with apprehension 
when first you trusted yourself to her embraces. 
But decidedly she has done you good. The 
past has been shoved back so that it no longer 
insistently claims the present and threatens the 
future. You can once more hold your own 
with the world as it is, and proceed to look 
after your baggage with a new interest concern- 
ing people and things in general. 

Thus felt Rae Raymond after her ocean trip, 
following hard upon the marriage of her two 
most intimate friends, both of w^hom she 
tenderly loved. 

Rae and her mother were now bent upon 
making the grand tour, and making it leisurely. 
It would therefore be quite impossible to define 
their trip as Phineas Fogg’s “Around tlie 
World in Eighty Days,” was sketched by the 
Daily Telegraph : 

From London to Suez via Mont Cenis and Brindisi, 

by rail and steamboats 7 days 

From Suez to Bombay, by steamer . . . 13 “ 

From Bombay to Calcutta, by rail . . . 3 “ 

From Calcutta to Hong Kong, by steamer . . 13 “ 

From Hong Kong to Yokohama (Japan) by 

steamer 6 “ 

From Yokohama to San Francisco, by steamer .22 “ 
From San Francisco to New York, by rail . . 7 “ 

From New York to London, by steamer and rail . 9 “ 


Total 


80 days 


70 


Indeed they lingered long in some places — 
for instance in London, in many respects that 
most marvellous as well as most populous hive 
of human beings on the globe. Here also, they 
found many acquaintances who assisted in pro- 
longing their stay in a city replete with the tri- 
umphs of their Anglo-Saxon ancestry. True, 
there was likewise an infusion of French blood 
which accounted partly for their long stop in 
the most brilliant and dazzling of European 
capitals, Paris. Rome, that mighty law-giving 
mother of the world was another city where 
these two tarried long, and finally left with a 
multitude of impressions which the reading of 
many books, or loquacity of many newspapers 
could never have succeeded in giving them. 
Then there was a sisterhood of beautiful Italian 
cities, among which may be especially men- 
tioned Florence, “La bella,” Genoa, “La su- 
perba,” Milan, “La grande,” Venice, Naples, 
Bologna, Turin, Pisa, all full of artistic crea- 
tions that consumed much of their time, and 
made these beholders loth to turn their backs 
on so much beauty, whether the handiwork of 
man or God. Not less difficult of curtailment 
as to time was their visit to the principal cities 
of music-steeped Germany. Indeed they lis- 
tened here, by day and by night, to such ex- 
quisite tone-poems and tone-dramas so fault- 


71 


lessly performed, that Rae declared more than 
once she should be henceforth spoiled for music 
in general and her own in particular. Her 
feelings in this respect may be compared to 
those of a delightful amateur pianist, W. 
Beatty-Kingston, who, upon hearing Liszt, 
thus dramatically paints his feelings : 

“ After listening awe-stricken and breathless, 
to one of these unequalled musical utterances, 
marvels alike of invention and execution, the 
revulsion of feeling experienced by a pianist of 
the class above alluded to was little short of 
crushing, suggesting grim vows of never again 
laying finger on key, of advertising one’s favor- 
ite ‘grand’ for sale at an unprecedented sacri- 
fice, and of foregoing throughout life all mu- 
sical enjoyments save that derivable from a 
Liszt improvisation. Perhaps the most won- 
derful feature of his playing was his touch, 
plurality of touch — pianists will understand 
what I mean — one light as a falling snowfiake 
on the wing of a butterfly, another as rich as 
Genoa velvet of triple pile, a third as clinging 
as a young lover’s first kiss, a fourth as hard 
and bright as the blow of a diamond-headed 
hammer. He could make the instrument, to 
others a machine of readily exhaustible tone- 
resources, do anything — sing, talk, laugh, weep, 
and mimic orchestral effects without number.” 


72 


Notwithstanding Germany’s great musical 
geniuses have enriched the world with the 
highest achievements in the noblest of arts and 
made the fatherland a trysting place for lovers 
of the same, Rae and her mother could find no 
appreciation of the fact by magnificent statues 
of these men, such as had been reared to Prus- 
sian kings and to men noted in the art of war. 
Finally Rae fell to asking one and another of 
such Germans as crossed her path, “ Why this 
oversight ? for oversight it must be on the part 
of prominent individuals among you, since the 
common people in many ways show their love 
of so divine an art.” The Germans thus ad- 
dressed looked surprised at the query — almost 
as much surprised as had an employee of the 
great Boston library when Rae asked that in- 
dividual, if Boston really had no great women 
— she had been led to suppose otherwise all 
her life ! This, after she had been studying 
attentively the clusters of names — all those of 
men — in the magnificent vestibule of that 
famous public building, reared by taxes raised 
on women’s property the same as on the men’s. 

But to return to the cogitating Germans, — 
from one of these Rae gleaned the following re- 
ply: “This apparent oversight is not due to 
the indifference of the people to their great 
men in art, science, literature, statesmanship. 


73 


but to the passive obedience of the masses who 
rarely take the initiative in any public enter- 
prise.” 

Berlin, aside from its evident non-apprecia- 
tion of great German civilians, was disappoint- 
ing to them in other respects, doubtless partly 
for the reason that it has suddenly grown large 
and been almost rebuilt since the war with 
France. There were whole streets of houses 
all “ equally high, equally broad, equally 
gaudy ” in appearance, because the Prussian 
kings adored uniformity in street architecture 
as well as in the uniforms of their soldiers. An 
individualistic home was a rarity, the usual 
Berlin mode of existence being an -apartment 
house shared with a dozen or more families, and 
subject to the petty tyranny of a porter whose 
duties were dangerously near those of a police 
officer. 

“ I do not wonder,” exclaimed Rae to her 
mother, one day, “ that Germany takes the 
lead as regards Socialism. They are naturally 
being prepared for it by all this sameness in 
domicile, in barracks, in uniforms and in pas- 
sive obedience to officialism. How I dislike it 
all ! Give me rather the grimy London fronts 
with their infinitely charming individualistic di- 
versity ! ” 

“ Ah, but Rae, I heard you say you thought 


74 


some sort of collectivism in our own country 
would be better than the other extreme toward 
which we are rushing wdth such appalling ce- 
lerity — that other extreme wherein the re- 
sources of the people are being more and more 
manipulated by gigantic trusts (ever becoming 
fewer and more gigantic) while the masses are 
being turned into officials, poorly paid artisans, 
half-starving laborers, an overworked peasan- 
try (in place of the dignified independent 
farmer) ; added to this the evils of a fettered 
press, a servile lawmaking power, and a consti- 
tution not sufficiently elastic to meet the emer- 
gencies of the hour.” 

“ Yes, yes,- but either extreme is hideous ! 
Let us talk about something else. We are 
only women, with hands tied by religion, poli- 
tics, science, economics, marriage ! Let us eat, 
drink, see sights and be merry ! That is better 
than brooding over present and threatening ills 
until we go insane, or make ourselves nuisances 
by becoming calamity-howlers. If our men 
would only allow our sex to be their helpmates 
we would assist them in finding some way to 
stretch our constitution to meet the new needs 
of our people, and to cancel interpolated 
clauses which work destruction to our finances 
and consequently to our liberties. But our 
men would rather go to perdition first ! — in fact 


75 


are in perdition to the new divine right of mil- 
lionaires’ rule, almost as destructive to liberty 
as the old divine right of kings.” 

“ Dear Rae, you are becoming intemperate 
in speech — so like your dear father in his edi- 
torials during the war. But you are a woman, 
dear ; it is less excusable in you than in him. 
I was patient before you, and my mother before 
me, and so on away back as far as history gives 
us any account, women have been patient, bear- 
ing their fates and asking little for themselves. 
But take heart! to-day we are not bought or 
sold, shut up in harems or even seriously looked 
down upon except by some of the professors in 
the great colleges, who write down our intel- 
lectual status with particular eagerness after 
they have fought to keep woman out.” 

Naturally a young woman like Rae Raymond, 
healthy, wealthy, handsome and cultured, with 
mischievous glances and sparkling repartee upon 
occasion, would find suitors in the Old World 
as in the New. To one of these suitors who 
would propose in spite of her ingenuity in ward- 
ing off the crisis, she answered with firmness : 

“ You have mistaken me altogether, I am 
not a marrying woman.” 

“Not a marrying woman ! I never heard of 
such a thing ! ” he exclaimed, with a look of 
amazement and incredulity. 


76 


Rae explained : 

“It is most common nowadays to hear it re- 
marked of a certain man, some well-preserved 
bachelor who has at command everything life 
has to offer by way of amusement, intellectual 
culture, social privileges (everything but heart- 
culture) that such a person is not a marry- 
ing man. We women are a little tardy in 
adopting new fashions, but sooner or later we 
put in an appearance in each new phase of life. 
Eve followed Adam, you know. Well, if I 
know myself, I am a non-marrying woman, a 
new kind of Eve.” 

As in this case, the strange audacity of her 
remarks usually extinguished whatever spark 
of love had flashed out in the marriage proposal 
of a few moments previous. The suitor would 
presently leave her side, remarking to himself : 

“ A strange, unnatural girl that ! A young 
woman without a woman’s heart ! How dread- 
ful ! Nature thwarted ! A new woman of the 
most frightful type. If this proves catching, 
men will have more reason to fear the new Eve 
than the old. A plague upon the sex, I say, 
whether its members be of the old order, or of 
the new! Ever a puzzle and a vexation of 
spirit to man.” 

There was one suitor, however, that Rae did 
not answer with her usual audacity, though 


77 


she refused him in a positive manner every time 
he proposed, and that was about every thou- 
sand miles of her journey around the world. 
He was one of those persistent men who will 
not take no for an answer. Rae and he fre- 
quently discussed marriage, but could never 
agree. The young man asserting that the mar- 
riage rite as instituted, maintained and admin- 
istered by the clergy was calculated to protect 
the mother and her child as they should be pro- 
tected. Otherwise men would, when the wife 
became old and less charming, desert her for a 
new face and fresh attractions, a demoralizing 
thing for the family and for the state. Rae on 
the other hand contended that the so-called, 
much vaunted protection was only another 
name for subjection of woman in marital life, 
and that as history proved most conclusively 
the degradation and degeneration of subject 
races of men, even those who were at one time 
dominant, that woman under like conditions 
would continue to develop the pettier and 
meaner qualities in undue measure. Rae main- 
tained that the time was at hand when so sacred 
and important a tie as marriage should cease to 
minister to a spirit of domination and owner- 
ship in the breast of the man, and to publicly 
humiliate the woman on her wedding day ; and, 
if she were a woman of spirit, to arouse in her 


78 


an ugly feeling of resistance ; or in the oppo- 
site kind of woman to kill even the small root 
of independence she might possess before mar- 
riage. The twain should leave the altar with 
the feeling that they should be mutually loving 
and helpful ; that they should mutually strive 
to serve and bear one another’s burdens ; that 
neither should feel that they had the right to 
claim domination or ownership of the other 
party associated in the delicate relationship of 
husband and wife. 

These two were in the habit of paying par- 
ticular attention to any new data on a theme in 
which they took so much interest. Newspaper 
literature was in the nature of things fragmen- 
tary, and presented but a meagre, sometimes 
distorted, view of one or two aspects of such an 
immense subject as the marital relations of the 
sexes, past and present, with guesses at future 
modifications. There was accordingly not a 
little rejoicing when Rae's persistent admirer 
brought in a good-sized book with many-sided, 
up-to-date views on the subject. True much 
of this same matter had appeared in newspaper 
form but in an English paper which only occa- 
sionally came within the range of Rae’s glance. 
The newspaper which had generously and self- 
sacrificingly undertaken to discover whether or 
no marriage as administered is a failure, was the 


79 


English Daily Telegraph. The phrase ‘‘self- 
sacrificingly ” is used advisedly since the editor 
is declared to have “ stood firm beneath the 
shock of twenty-seven thousand letters,” on the 
query, “Is marriage a failure?” To give some 
idea of the enormous proportions of this corre- 
spondence, Harry Quilter informs the public in 
the preface of the book which has undertaken 
to republish the cream of the correspondence — 
incorporating also a paper on the philosophy of 
marriage by Mrs. Lynn Linton, and the princi- 
pal laws of marriage and divorce as instituted 
by Christendom — that, 

“Seasons changed, summer passed away. 
Baldwin fell from the clouds, and Edison’s 
voice was brought us in a box. Imperial dia- 
ries came out and were suppressed, grouse were 
cleared from the moors, and partridges shot in 
the stubble, but still with the inevitableness of 
fate, the regularity of time, and the persistency 
of a Scotch lawyer, the three columns of per- 
plexed curates, city barmaids, observant bache- 
lors, and glorified spinsters, maintained their 
hold upon the journal, and their claim on the 
public attention. 

“ At last in full tide, when it seemed that the 
correspondence might become as long as Albany 
Street, the Daily Telegraph closed it abruptly. 
No one will ever know what editorial prevision 


80 


of the claim to be made the very next day upon 
the public attention by the horror excited by 
the Whitechapel murders prompted the close 
of this correspondence. Suffice it, that on 
Saturday, September 29th, the controversy 
ended.” 

When Rae remarked to her mother after hav- 
ing perused many of the letters, that she had no 
idea there was such general dissatisfaction in the 
ranks of married people as the book would lead 
her to suppose, Mrs. Raymond answered with 
an amused smile : 

“And I, Rae, am surprised, that a gentleman 
who has tried so hard to win your consent to 
be his bride should place in your hands such a 
telltale volume.” 

Rae laughed softly as she replied, “ He is 
well aware how eager I am for all knowledge 
possible on a subject of such vital importance 
to the progress of the race. He is sufficiently 
familiar with Herbert Spencer to believe that 
the more favors we render one another the 
more surely we win each other’s good will.” 

“ Ah, yes, everything is done to secure affec- 
tion before marriage.” 

Mrs. Raymond sighed as she went on arrang- 
ing her gown before the mirror in their dress- 
ing-room, one of their rather gaudy but fine 
suite of rooms. Rae, who had finished an elab- 


81 

orate toilette and had thrown herself into a 
chair near by, was alternately reading and chat- 
ting ; at any moment she expected a servant 
announcing her persistent admirer. Usually 
she knew to a minute when he would call, but 
to-day her watch was at a jeweller’s for repairs 
and her mother’s timepiece could not be de- 
pended upon, it being an exquisite toy rather 
than an article of utility. 

“ I had almost forgotten, but there is one 
letter in the first part of the book that you 
would enjoy immensely. I will read it to you 
while you curl your hair. Of course I do not 
accept all she says, but I think you will agree 
with her entirely : 

“ Sir : — There is a great deal being said at 
present about women. It seems to me that a 
transition period has arrived in their destiny. 
Mrs. Mona Caird seems to object to the mar- 
riage rite, and, as far as I can see, advocates 
something unworthy of womanhood. Disasters 
follow hasty and improvident marriages, doubt- 
less, but a thousand times more direful would 
be the disasters which would follow a violation 
of the sacred law of marriage. Women have 
enough to cc ntend with, heaven knows, under 
the existing state of things, but only degrada- 
tion and oppression of the weaker sex,” Rae 


82 


stopped, interjecting, “ You see she takes it 
for granted that we are really the weaker sex, 
spiritually as well as physically,” then she read 
on with unabated animation, “ could possibly 
accrue were the venerable sanctuary of wed- 
lock desecrated. I do not believe that any 
woman with a spark of womanliness in her 
could honestly uphold such a doctrine. Women 
are heavily weighted enough as it is in the race 
of life. One law is made for the man and an- 
other for the woman. Women are the weaker 
vessel,” Rae exclaimed in disgust. “ Pah ! why 
should men be overweighted with vanity and 
women have so little, I wonder? ” and again pick- 
ing up the book as though compelled, continued, 
“and ‘might has been right,’ for long ages; but 
in the present day a few females are beginning 
to take an independent outlook, and to view 
matters — not as they have been taught to view 
them, but — as they really are. As a class 
women are oppressed and men are the oppress- 
ors. A writer in one of the, current magazines 
speaks of ‘ Glorified Spinsters ’ as one of the 
novel productions of this age. The glorified 
spinster reads Spencer and Mill ; she earns her 
own living ; she dwells in rooms by herself ; 
she lives honestly ; dresses plainly ; and as she 
is thrown on her own resources for amusement, 
she cultivates her intellect. It seems to me 


83 


that there does not exist on this earth a more 
respectable character than a woman who can 
stand alone and make her own way in this big, 
dreary world.’’ 

Rae nodded, “ That is true ! the way things 
are it is a frightful place for the poor — men or 
women, don't you think so, old lady?” not 
waiting for a reply she dipped back into the 
book, 

“And such independent, self-reliant ones are 
not few in the present age. Men require an 
amount of excitement to make them satisfied 
with their daily life — drinking, betting, smok- 
ing, concert-halls and the like ; but women who 
go their own way in the world find life tolerable 
and even happy with none of these. Women 
who look upon marriage as the end of their 
aims, and who fail to get a husband, are fretful, 
peevish, disappointed, and one feels inclined to 
wonder almost why they were created. But 
women who have taken broader views of life, 
and have found their work, and have done it 
faithfully and honestly, and continue to do it, 
are not unhappy. Marriage is not essential to 
a woman’s life. There are thousands of women 
leading honest, independent, useful lives, who 
have tasted of some of the highest happiness 
with * no aid from passion and no thought of 
love.’ Life has only two ecstatic moments — 


84 


one when the soul catches a glimpse of a kin- 
dred spirit, and one when the spirit catches 
sight of truth. Few women can enjoy both of 
these, for in the light of the kindred spirit they 
cease to perplex themselves to seek for the 
light of knowledge ; but the woman who has 
no kindred spirit to occupy her mind, may delve 
into things and delight her soul in discovering 
fresh truths. Life has its compensations: we 
cannot be inquiring philosophers and happy 
wives as well. Therefore, my sisters, let us at 
least be inquiring philosophers. Yours, 

“ A Gloeified Spinstee.” 

Rae finished with an expression eloquent of 
dissent. 

“ That is excellent, I am sure,” returned Mrs. 
Raymond, when Rae had finished. “ The book 
is not so bad after all, but what can there be in 
this letter excepting her trite reference to her 
own sex as the weaker vessel to which you can- 
not fully subscribe ? ” 

“ More particularly the latter part — ‘ We 
cannot be inquiring philosophers and happy 
wives as well.’ Why should it be any more 
impossible for women to be both inquiring phi- 
losophers and happy wives than for men to be 
both inquiring philosophers and happy hus- 
bands ? I cannot see except that women have 


85 


to bear children and be in subjection to their — 
domestic duties.” 

“ While women are caring for their children, 
men have the living to make and to be in sub- 
jection to business requirements.” 

“And in addition to their home duties, 
women are obliged to be in subjection to their 
husbands who would soon put a stop to their 
being inquiring philosophers.” There was a 
pause ; as Mrs. Raymond made no comment, 
Rae added with decision : 

“ But that is wholly unnecessary and should 
be firmly resisted by the wives.” 

Mrs. Raymond actually laughed, something 
unusual for her who had been bred to suppress 
anything like demonstrative emotion or exuber- 
ance in conduct. Then she said as she held the 
iron wrapped in a lock of hair, 

“ I imagine the fate of these resisting wives 
would be much like that of Vashti. The men 
would combine now, as then, to arrange the sup- 
pression of any such independence to marital 
authority.” 

“Do you really think so, mother? remember 
times are changed even since your day. Woman 
has a thousand privileges now, undreamed of in 
your time. Besides, I do not understand how 
either men or women can be successful inquir- 
ing philosophers unless they have the advantage 


86 


of viewing life from the standpoint of married 
life with its multitudinous experiences as well 
as from the standpoint of single life. The 
most successful inquiring philosopher I know 
of was Emerson who was twice happily mar- 
ried. If he had been happily married once, and 
the other time unhappily he might have been 
still more successful — but I am sure he saw 
enough facets of truth for any one mortal. The 
three most successful inquiring woman philoso- 
phers of the past were, I think, George Eliot, 
George Sand and Madame de Stael, all of whom 
had the advantage of viewing life from both 
the single and double standpoint. Even celi- 
bate, inquiring men-philosophers seem to come 
short as compared with their married brothers.” 

“ I am afraid you are beginning to fall in love 
with that persistent lover of yours, Rae,” said 
the mother, anxiously, at the same time giving 
Rae a scrutinizing glance. 

Before Rae could make answer, a neat Ger- 
man maid came in and handed a card to Rae, 
who, after looking at it smiled back at her 
mother, and said : 

“ Very well, Gretchen, tell him I will be there 
in a moment.” 


SEVEN 


“I do not call to mind a single human being who has 
steadily denied the authority of the laws on the simple 
ground of his own moral nature.” 

— Emerson. 

Our marriage and divorce laws are a mass of anomalies. 

In the greeting of Rae Raymond and her ex- 
pected caller there was nothing that would in- 
dicate they were in love with each other unless 
it was the fact that the gentleman held the 
lady’s hand in his a trifle longer than was nec- 
essary or usual, and inquired after the health 
of her mother with more than ordinary solici- 
tude. 

It was evening, the room was brilliantly 
lighted, and there were flowers in the beautiful 
vases which Rae had selected and brought from 
Italy. The fine piano was open, and near it was 
a violin on a centre table. The furniture of the 
room was rich but not so suggestive of ease and 
sociability as that manufactured in America. 
Rae was attired in a heliotrope oriental satin 
gown trimmed in spotted chiffon of the same 
shade and delicate shimmering beaded work of 
87 


88 


charming design. She wore an antique neck- 
lace, picked up in Italy, and diamond earrings 
consisting of single stones. Her abundant, 
dark glossy hair was done in a massive but com- 
pactly braided coil at the back of her head ; 
the front was waved back with the exception 
of a lock or two curled on the forehead, which 
rendered her brow more feminine in appearance 
than would have been the case if her hair had 
been severely drawn back. 

Her companion’s clothes were not remarkable 
in any way, though doubtless if Rae Raymond 
had undertaken to describe them, she would 
have ended — or begun — by saying they were a 
remarkably poor fit. But, while Rae set a 
high value on appearances, she was far from 
the opinion that clothes make the man. 

After these two had chatted awhile on gen- 
eral topics, the young man asked, 

“What do you think of the book, ‘Is Mar- 
riage a Failure?’ or rather, I would ask what 
effect has the reading of it had upon 3^011 ? ” 
“Judging by all this new English testimony 
I am more than ever convinced that marriage 
and divorce as administered to-day by the vari- 
ous Christian nations present a perfect mass of 
anomalies and absurdities.” 

“ Yes, rather puzzling, in some ways. The 
sailor who was married and divorced in America 


89 


but found upon returning to England that Eng- 
lish law recognized his marriage but not his 
divorce, was in a perplexing situation. Not- 
withstanding this it appears to be quite possible 
in Great Britain for a man to have two wives, 
one of whom is his lawful wife in England, the 
other in Scotland. Again in certain of Eng- 
land’s colonies marriage with a deceased wife’s 
sister is legal ; but if a domiciled Englishman 
takes a trip to one of these colonies, marries 
his deceased wife’s sister and brings her home, 
he finds his marriage invalid. Also, it appears 
that while England permits the use of a multi- 
tude of religious ceremonies by the various re- 
ligious sects, yet if these are not performed in a 
registered building in the presence of a regis- 
trar, not the presence of a whole bench of 
bishops can constitute the ceremony a legal 
marriage ; hence many sad mistakes.” 

“■Pardon me, do you not mean many happy es- 
capes?” asked Rae. “ But you did not mention 
into what a series of complications a man could 
put himself by attempting to have a legal wife 
both in England and Scotland. For instance, 
we will say he is English, lives in London, and 
marries a country woman. They go to Scot- 
land where he misconducts himself so seriously 
that she procures a divorce. Her husband 
marries again, returns to England where he can 


be prosecuted for bigamy, the divorce obtained 
by his first wife holding good north of the 
Tweed, but being invalid in England.” 

“ Poor devil ! but your laws are no better, 
though I have understood that there is more 
happiness in married life in the States than else- 
where,” 

“ Oh, yes, I am inclined to think that is the 
case, now that I have lived abroad some time 
and given particular attention to domestic life 
among foreign people. But while we are free 
from Roman Catholic dictation in a measure, 
we have plenty of anomalies of our own. In 
no two states are the marriage and divorce laws 
the same. As to the matter of age, in one 
state a youthful couple may marry at twelve 
and fourteen respectively. In another their 
ardor would have time to cool since each would 
have to add a couple of years before a lawful 
marriage could take place ; in another they 
would have to wait still longer — till eighteen 
and fifteen. But if they happened to live in 
Washington they would probably be off with 
this calf love and on with a more serious affair, 
for in this state the legal ages are twenty-one 
and eighteen. As for consent of parents, some- 
times this is almost as necessary as in France ; 
in other states as little worthy of consideration 
as in England. Then as to consanguinity or 


91 


affinity as a bar to marriage, there is likewise a 
vast difference in the various states. In Ver- 
mont a mail may not marry his mother-in-law, 
should he wish to ; and there arise many com- 
plications if you happen to have Chinese or 
negro blood in your veins and attempt marriage 
with a white person. On one side of a river a 
man can marry a consort as black as he can 
find, while on the other side of the river negro 
blood to the extent of one-eighth suffices to 
prevent legal union ; indeed it is sometimes a 
penal offence for a white person to marry a 
negro. However, all these marriage variations 
of our forty and odd states are but a drop in 
the bucket compared to the puzzling situations 
a couple may encounter who are determined to 
untie their marital knot and have lived a sort 
of migratory life in several states.” 

“I have never paid any attention to the mat- 
ter of obtaining a divorce. That does not 
bother me in the least,” said Rae’s admirer, 
bending toward her. “ My puzzle is how to 
get married to the lady of my choice.” 

“Yes, I suppose that is the usual mode of 
proceeding,” she lifted her eyebrows ; “ before 
marriage to give one’s attention to the business 
of getting married ; and after that to the busi- 
ness of obtaining a divorce.” 

“I fear you are incorrigible. Miss Raymond.” 


92 


This was said with much sadness b}' the 
young man who regarded her with a serious 
expression of countenance. 

“ Why should I not be ? — I find that it is a 
much more desperate business, this of getting 
married, than I had ever conceived. By the 
way, I made a little memorandum of a few 
matrimonial foxes which from the letters, ap- 
pear to mar the luxuriance of the vines of 
wedded bliss.” 

Rae went to a stand upon which lay the 
book, “ Is Marriage a Failure ? ” and took from 
it a paper. On second thoughts she returned 
and secured the book also, and came back to 
her former place. Then she said ominously, 

“ Prepare for ugly truths on the dark side of 
matrimony.” 

Rae’s caller gave an expressive shrug of the 
shoulders, which caused her to laugh merrily, 
after which she began to read from her paper : 

“Insatiable passion for betting and drinking.” 

“ I should think one of those passions alone 
would be enough to destroy domestic peace, but 
proceed.” 

“ Idiotic speculations repeated ad nauseum. 
Confirmed infidelity and neglect. The vice of 
laziness carried to excess and combined with 
the basest selfishness, cynical unkindness, down- 
right brutality.” 


93 


“ I repeat, I should think any one of those 
causes would destroy the happiness of any 
couple. Why combine them ? ” 

“I often found them so, probably for the 
reason that as a rule there must be two causes 
combined to secure absolute divorce in England 
— infidelity alone not being sufficient. 

“ Confirmed drunkenness with aggravated as- 
saults. 

“ Ungovernable temper and a carping, gibing, 
exasperating tongue. Chronic suspicion accom- 
panied with maddening surveillance.” 

“Any more little foxes?” inquired the lis- 
tener, as Rae paused. 

“ I have only made a good beginning,” she 
replied. 

“ Long penal service on the part of husband 
or wife. 

“ Frequently released gaol birds become eligi- 
ble for divorce, also insufferably disputatious 
persons. 

“ Chronic acrimonious religious difference is 
sufficient cause. 

“ Concealed idiocy, revealed after marriage. 

“ Continual wagging of a nagging tongue.” 

“ That last must be the most unendurable,” 
said the patient caller, with a shrug. 

“ Yes, but not even in Arizona or Dakota 
could a man or woman obtain relief from the 


94 


continual dropping of an irritating tongue,” and 
she continued : 

“ Prolonged semi-starvation due to laziness. 

“ Insufferable snobbishness every day in the 
week. 

“ Frequent desertion, more or less prolonged. 

“ Chronic diseases that menace health of off- 
spring. 

“ Hypocritical attentions combined with 
treacherous lying. 

“ Frequently repeated overdose of mother-in- 
law. 

“ Incompatible temperaments. 

“Broken pre-marital promises. 

“ Demoralizing social dissipation.” 

“ Surely you did not find all you have been 
reading in that book ? ” interrupted the aston- 
ished caller. 

“ All in this book and more ; though of 
course scattered through a mass of letters. I 
crystallized these various menaces to connubial 
bliss in a few clauses. But there are more of 
them.” 

“Well, let us have them. I am curious to 
hear what else there can be under the heavens 
to mar the happiness of two trusting creatures.” 

“ Absorbing Platonic friendships associated 
with chronic ‘ cold shoulder ’ treatment of hus- 
band or wife.” 


95 


“ That would be hard to put up with, I’ll 
admit,” again interrupted the gentleman. “ Idle, 
though, to dream of help or relief as things 
are.” 

“Perfectly idle, unless you do not mind 
blackening the characters of a dozen or so 
people in the course of your quest for a divorce. 
But there, I will not read you any more irritat- 
ing causes of trouble in married life, though I 
have others down, incident to diseased nerves, 
brains, etc. These are trifles light as air in 
comparison with dishonest treatment of each 
other incident to a bad or brutal heart.” 

“Well, rather a discouraging list; still,” he 
said, “ with dishonest people any sort of a mar- 
riage would be a failure. I think it is just as 
well to tie them up tight and let them fight it 
out. As for good, upright people, free mar- 
riage even could not be bad.” 

“ The trouble is many people are as bad as 
they dare to be,” answered Rae. “ Associate 
such a person with a fairly good companion, 
and he will take all the advantage which an 
almost indissoluble bond permits. The great 
reason why men and women are admirable as 
lovers, is because of the uncertainty of being 
able to win each other. If there was the same 
uncertainty in being able to retain each other 
in wedlock, these people would still be on their 


96 


good behavior. There ought to be more room 
for the play of that wonderful natural law of 
the survival of the fittest in married life.” 

“ What ! after a man or a woman has com- 
passed heaven and earth to win a beloved per- 
son, then have it uncertain how long he can re- 
tain his prize ? How cruel you would be, Miss 
Raymond, if you had the making of the mar- 
riage laws ! ” 

“ But how do you know that you would not 
be just as eager to relinquish your prize after 
marriage, as you were before to win ? ” asked 
Rae, “ and if you were, you would regard with 
complacency a marriage contract that, being 
made legal by mutual consent and by aid of 
registrar, could be dissolved by the same means. 
Of course, where the consent was not mutual 
the courts would have to decide as best they 
could whether there was real cause for divorce, 
or for separation. Also, if a reasonable mar- 
riage contract has been privately drawn up, 
and has been violated, or rendered null and 
void by one of the parties, and the other de- 
sires the dissolution of the marriage in conse- 
quence — though unable to obtain the consent 
of the other party — the marriage should be 
dissolved, since the basis upon \Yhich it was 
made is by that wish already dissolved, and 
the marriage is a failure.” 


97 


“ Supposing, Miss Raymond, you were not 
obliged to solemnly swear you would love, honor 
or serve a man until death, but only required to 
live with him, would you be willing to do 
that ? ” 

“One might under certain circumstances feel 
able to count upon doing that, I suppose, but 
neither church nor state has any right to com- 
pel people intending matrimony to obligate 
themselves so seriously. It is positively wrong 
at tills stage of the world’s progress for either 
a state, or a church to insist on the making of 
vows which no human being can be sure of ful- 
filling. This practice engenders a tendency to 
irresponsibility as regards the making and 
breaking of promises. The present orthodox 
marriage service is bad on other accounts. 
Listen to this extract from one of the letters : 

“ ‘ I think the Anglican Marriage Service 
does a great deal of harm. It publicly humili- 
ates a woman, makes her feel uncomfortable on 
her wedding day, and arouses a- spirit of re- 
sistance. “ Let the wife see that she reverence 
her husband ” ; can any precept be more un- 
reasonable ? If people are worthy of reverence 
they are reverenced, and not otherwise. Neither 
reverence nor love will come to order. The 
Anglican service lowers the wife and sets the 
husband on a pedestal not at all suitable to 


98 


him, filling him with notions of marital suprem- 
acy which are the cause of half the unhappiness 
of married life. What wonder that when a man 
hears himself described as his wife’s god ( “ the 
man is the head of the woman even as Christ is 
the Head of the Church ” ) he should consider 
her in the light of Ins horse, or his dog, or any- 
thing that is his ? Why should an old bachelor 
like St. Paul influence our ceremonies of to- 
day ?’ ” 

“ No reasonable man. Miss Raymond, would 
deny that the Anglican service is out of date ; 
that is, no man who is not a religions bigot. 
The idea of a woman of to-day being told to 
reverence her husband is absurd. The man 
knows the woman by his side is far better than 
himself; if he was not perfectly aware of that 
fact he would never marry her. But the old 
landmarks are so difficult of removal. In the 
meantime I should like to get married.” 

Rae, unheeding this observation, went on to 
say: 

“ I do not agree with those who think that 
marriage, as instituted by the priests of the 
past, from Genesis down to the peopling of the 
New World, is a failure. It was necessary that 
the world should be peopled, I suppose, but 
there are now more people, even in the States, 
than man’s administration of affairs can prop- 


99 


erly provide for. So woman should now be 
raised to an equality with man as regards the 
privilege and liberty to be herself, even as man 
desires to be himself. Under such conditions 
the race would steadily improve. I hope that 
when woman is no longer monopolized by man, 
and kept in subjection, that the race of cruel 
monopolists of to-day will pass away and give 
place to a more generous, Christ-like people.” 

“But in this time of transition, alas, what 
can such poor sinners as I do who need so much 
a woman’s tender care and furtherance? You 
appear to believe that it is better to live in sel- 
fish isolation. That reminds me, I have brought 
an antidote for you, to offset the deleterious ef- 
fect of the book which I was weak enough to 
put into your hands because I knew that it 
would please you.” 

With a tender smile the antidote was pro- 
duced from an ample pocket and placed in Rae’s 
hand. She did not appear to notice his almost 
affectionate manner as she turned over the 
leaves of the book exclaiming : 

“ Oh ! Philip Gilbert Hamerton is the author, 
a most graceful and charming writer. Shall I 
read the part you have marked now, or after- 
ward to myself? ” 

“Pray be so good as to read it now. I 
should like to hear those beautiful sentiments 


100 


fall from your lips even though you did not 
originate them. Possibly you will think such 
marital felicity the dream of an exalted imagi- 
nation never to be realized here.” 

“ I am curious, and shall proceed at once,” 
said Rae, blushing vividly. 

“ ‘I believe in the promises of Nature ; I be- 
lieve that in every want there is the promise of 
possible satisfaction. If we are hungry there 
is food somewhere, if we are thirsty there is 
drink. But in the things of the world there 
is often an indication of order rather than a re- 
alization of it ; so that in the confusion of acci- 
dents the hungry man may be starving in a 
beleaguered city, and the thirsty man, parched 
in Sahara. All that the wants indicate is, that 
their satisfaction is possible in Nature. Let us 
believe that for every one the true mate exists 
somewhere in the world. She is worth seeking 
for at any cost of' trouble or expense, worth 
travelling round the globe to find, worth the 
endurance of labor and pains and privation. 
Men suffer all this for objects of far inferior 
importance ; they risk life for the chance of a 
ribbon, and sacrifice leisure and peace for the 
smallest increase of social position. What are 
these vanities in comparison with the priceless 
benefit, the continual blessing of having with 
you always the one person whose presence can 


101 


deliver you from all the evils of solitude, with- 
out imposing the constraints and hypocrisies of 
society? With her you are free to be as much 
yourself as when alone ; you say what you think 
and she understands you. Your silence does 
not offend her ; she only thinks that there will 
be time enough to talk together afterward. You 
know that you can trust her love, which is as 
unfailing as the law of nature. The differences 
of idiosyncrasy that exist between you, only 
add interest to your intercourse by preventing 
her from becoming a mere echo of yourself. 
She has her own ways, her own thoughts that 
are not yours, and yet are all open to you, so 
that you no longer dwell in one intellect only 
but have constant access to a second intellect, 
probably more refined and elegant, richer in 
what is delicate and beautiful. There you 
make unexpected discoveries ; you find that the 
first instinctive preference is more than justi- 
fied by merits that you had not discovered. 
You had hoped and trusted vaguely that there 
were certain qualities; but as a painter who 
looks long at a natural scene is constantly dis- 
covering new beauties while he is painting it, 
so the long and loving observation of a beauti- 
ful human mind reveals a tliousand unexpected 
excellencies. Then come the trials of life, the 
sudden calamities, the long and wearing anxie- 


102 


ties. Each of these will only reveal more 
clearly the wonderful endurance, fidelity and 
fortitude that there is in every noble feminine 
nature, and so build upon the foundation of 
your early love an unshakable edifice of esteem 
and respect and love commingled, for which in 
our modern tongue we have no single term, but 
which our forefathers called worship.’ ” 

It was impossible for these two not to glance 
at each other as Rae paused, having finished 
the marked selection. Impossible for the 
gentleman to resist bending forward, grasping 
Rae’s hand and saying in the most insistent of 
tones : 

“ Miss Raymond — Rae ! May I not at least 
have the satisfaction of calling you, Rae? — 
Consider how many months, miles, journeys, 
how many pains, penalties, anxieties suffered ” — 

At this moment visitors were announced and 
Rae quickly withdrew her hand, as she rose to 
greet the newcomers. 


EIGHT 


“The experience of irresponsible dominion over women 
has also acted unfavorably upon men, as the use of irre- 
sponsible power always does. It has created in their 
minds immense self-complacency, a contemptuous opinion of 
women, which runs through the literature and legislation 
of all nations.” 

— Mary A . Livermore, 


“ Faymales have no more head than a hin, an’ Hannah^s 
no worse than her sec.” 


— Pat Quinn, 


After two years of continuous sight-seeing, 
Rae and her mother were only too glad to take 
refuge for a time in a quiet old mansion of Mrs. 
Raymond’s, near South Carolina’s metropolis. 
Charleston. It was located on a large planta- 
tion and admirably adapted for seclusion 
and complete rest. 

By this time Rae decided that nature had 
never intended her for a bird of passage or a 
migratory animal of any kind ; but that she 
was a creature having a strict habitat with 
probably plenty of work to keep her actively 
employed. 

But what kind of work? That is the prob- 
103 


104 


lem of the twentieth century woman. True, 
a good many of the nineteenth century women 
have stepped out of the old beaten track of 
household domesticity and opened up new fields 
of usefulness ; and others, following the lead 
of man, in regarding marriage as a probable oc- 
currence ill their lives rather than the grand 
climax have chosen arduous professions. 

Rae, however, since the marriage of Sidney 
and Retta, had ceased to think of marriage as 
even a probability in her career. She must ac- 
cordingly discover what she was best fitted to 
do and prepare herself to do it well ; when she 
would devote herself to it with ardor for six 
days in the week. On the seventh she would 
attend church, hear good music, of which she 
was fond, since it made her feel that there 
must be a divinely harmonious being, or be- 
ings, somewhere, — and listen to the prayers 
and sermon, provided they were worth listen- 
ing to, for Rae’s religious nature was well de- 
veloped, only it protested at being fed on old 
theological husks. 

Mrs. Raymond suggested that Rae should 
consider plans for engaging in some kind of 
newspaper work, when the time should come 
for their return to Chicago. Rae replied that 
she felt bewildered now that she had been 
around the world and seen so many strange 


105 


sights and heard so many strange things; be- 
sides, she had quite lost track of American 
progress ; she must read, and think, and then 
possibly she would put results on paper. “Any 
way,” she declared, “I shall not rush into print, 
as so many are doing nowadays.” 

After continuous travel and sight-seeing, 
their uneventful easy life in the isolated, south- 
ern mansion, covered with creepers and bloom- 
ing vines and surrounded by noble trees was to 
them an idyllic one. It was pleasant to wander 
without haste among the flowers and trees un- 
thinking of orders or species ; it was delightful 
when indoors to feel that the whole house was 
theirs and that they could do as they liked in 
it ; it was equally pleasant to read anything 
their fancy suggested, rather than feel obliged 
to pore over guide books and histories pertain- 
ing to places and peoples and things they were 
visiting, or about to visit. 

Yet so strong was Rae’s habit of studying 
the spot she was visiting, that almost before she 
was aware of the fact, she had procured histor- 
ical matter concerning South Carolina and 
Charleston, and was reading it with avidity. 
It pleased her to learn anew that a considera- 
ble number of Huguenots were among the early 
pioneers of Charleston, and that the city was 
engaged in the revolutionary movement of 


106 


1775, being one of the first to declare its inde- 
pendence of British rule ; and that up to the 
time of the Civil War, Charleston had pros- 
pered in a quiet way and was noted for its 
hospitality and refinement. Not so pleasant, 
but more thrilling was its history in connection 
with the nullification movement of 1830, was 
the part it took in precipitating the Civil War 
and the story of its terrible losses and sad for- 
tunes in connection with that struggle. After 
the desolation of war came the slow rehabilitat- 
ing process, followed by new thrift and progress, 
to receive a partial set-back by the cyclonic ex- 
perience of 1885, and an almost paralyzing 
shock the very next year by the earthquake 
which laid half of it in ruins. From thence 
on, the career of Charleston, the impetuous and 
plucky, has been one of ever-increasing pros- 
perity. 

Having gotten at the facts in connection 
with Charleston, Rae’s next action was to visit 
every part of the city and its vicinity, examin- 
ing with care its architecture, streets, parks and 
gardens, its public buildings and homes; in- 
forming herself of its commercial advantages 
and of other particulars which, perhaps only a 
young woman from Chicago would have ob- 
served and considered; speculating meanwhile 
on the characteristics of the people who had 


107 


•been instrumental in making this city by the 
sea, the chief centre of the “ Palmetto State ” ; 
recognizing in these characteristics the forces 
that had made South Carolina a power among 
the original thirteen colonies. 

One morning Rae, tired of the vegetating 
life they were leading, sat idly rocking before 
an upstairs window commanding a good view 
of the plantation, when Mrs. Raymond brought 
in a bundle of papers and tossed them into her 
daughter’s lap. Not being a devotee of news- 
paper literature, like her daughter, Mrs. Ray- 
mond herself took up some fancy work. She 
thought much newspaper reading demoralizing 
to the chaste feminine mind, and if it had been 
in her power, would gladly have prevented 
Rae’s absorption of any papers but those of a 
religious character. And she would have in- 
sisted upon it if she could have gained her 
point without friction ; but she loved her child 
too well to cross her seriously in anything, and 
so contented herself with mildly protesting at 
Rae’s sometimes startling innovations. She 
was, however, well informed, and Rae liked 
nothing better than to chat with her mother 
over what she had read. Indeed, it was an 
old-time custom for Mrs. Raymond to work 
quietly at some mending or embroidery till Rae 
had had time to glance over the day’s papers 


108 


when she would turn to her mother and give 
her a brief resume of their contents. To-day, 
however, instead of doing this, she said : 

“ There’s the queerest ‘ ad ’ in this paper I 
ever saw. I will read it to you. 

“ ‘ A young man of inquiring and aspiring 
mind desires to correspond with one or more 
American ladies. Aim, culture. Address Lock 
Box 222.’ 

“ Really, that is complimentary. How kind 
of him — he makes culture and American ladies 
synonymous ; it is the first time I ever knew a 
man to admit that he could obtain culture or 
anything really worth having from a woman. 
I believe I will reply; he need never know 
me,” she laughed. “ He says he wants culture ! 
I could teach him something — any American 
woman could do that. I have nothing to do 
just now, we leave before long.” 

“ But — dear — consider,” Mrs. Raymond ex- 
claimed, in a horrified tone. “ This unknown 
person might be a reprobate, might prove an 
escaped convict or a lunatic — lunatics do such 
odd things — and that advertisement, as you 
say, is queer. Or he might be a married man 
with a family, and only want a new sensation 
with some giddy girl. Think what a scandal 
there would be if it became known that Miss 
Raymond corresponded with such a person ! It 


109 


would be in all the newspapers with great black 
staring head lines.” 

“ Consider again,” retorted Rae, “ one has to 
do something in this world, or commit suicide 
to get a staring head line. True the ‘ ad ’ is 
queer, but then I am queer too. Besides I 
want a new sensation.” Mrs. Raymond gasped 
as Rae continued, “I would really like to 
correspond with this lord of creation — asking 
guilelessly for culture at the hands of a woman. 
Suppose he has a wife and children, that's noth- 
ing to me. I shall not interfere with them. 
The aim is culture, not the usual one of mar- 
riage.” 

“ But, dear Rae, marriage may be the real aim 
of the man.” 

“Well* then, he can’t have a wife and chil- 
dren.” 

“ He might have, and get a divorce in order 
to marry again if he found some woman he 
liked better than his poor wife. Divorces are 
scandalously easy nowadays; our minister says 
that ‘ they should be put a stop to.’ ” 

“ Do you think divorce is easy for people who 
have any self-respect, any conscience, any heart? 
Easy to admit one has been a fool, a knave, a 
perjurer ? Easy to be compelled, in order to 
free one’s self from a strangling bond, to run 
the gauntlet of every scandal-mongering sheet 


110 


in the country, lay bare one’s festering sore to 
a precedent-bound court and face despoliation 
of a fair name, perhaps only to obtain with 
one’s freedom if one should be so lucky as to 
obtain it, a lingering life of shame and despair? 
Oh, it is all so easy — it is the old story of the 
church laying heavy burdens on the people, 
heavier burdens than they can bear. Thank 
heaven, the state is not quite so blind, so heart- 
less, so relentless toward marital victims as our 
average orthodox church. By the wa}^ have 
you read in your religious paper what those 
stupid men have been up to ? The English I 
mean — they are worse, of course, than the 
American clergymen, more incorrigibly stupid 
and relentless.” 

“ No, I have read nothing lately,” replied 
Mrs. Raymond, quietly. 

She always spoke gently when Rae got warm 
and flashed out rather than spoke her thought. 

“ Let me read it to you,” Rae said, as she 
rose from her chair and went over to her writ- 
ing desk. From one of its drawers she brought 
out a notebook, and glancing for a moment 
over the list of subjects, turned to a certain 
page and began to read, dropping into the chair 
by the desk. 

“ ‘ A meeting of the English Church Union 
was held on Tuesday night in Bennington, 


Ill 


when the Duke of Newcastle presided. Canon 
Knox-Little moved that a petition be presented 
to the bishops, praying them to take immediate 
and effectual steps to put a stop to the scandal 
resulting from the blessings of the Church be- 
ing given by individual clergymen to the mar- 
riage of divorced persons contrary to the law 
of the Church of England, to the contempt of 
all ecclesiastical discipline, and to the grievous 
injury of Christian morality. The resolution 
was unanimously carried.’ 

“ You see, on this subject the church is de- 
termined to persecute,” commented Rae. 

Mrs. Raymond thought best to make no re- 
ply, and Rae contented herself by remarking 
as she turned to her desk : 

“ The upshot will be that people will refuse 
more and more to let the Church meddle with 
marital matters, and will eventually refuse to 
be married by their formulas of indissolubility.” 

As Rae set about writing a letter, Mrs. Ray- 
/ mond sighed, and thought for the thousandth 
time : “ Oh, if I could only have kept our 

daily newspapers out of Rae’s hands I Then 
her head would not be so full of marital 
troubles disclosed by divorce scandals, and she 
would uphold our ministers in their efforts for 
marriage reform ... or divorce reform I 
think it is the Church wants. . » . It is Rae 


in 

who talks so much about marriage reform. She 
is so like her poor dead father, only at her age 
he was angry with the clergy here because they 
advocated what he called ‘damned slavery.’ 
What a pity he swore so — I hope he repented 
on his deathbed and went to heaven. It 
turned out that he was right though about the 
negro slaves, that they ought to be freed . 
. . but it can never be right to free anybody 

from the marriage vows, no matter how bad 
they find married life for themselves. South 
Carolina has taken the right stand in respect to 
indissoluble marriage. . . . 

“ . . . . Poor Pae ! She is altogether 

wrong in saying that ‘ we miglit hope to have a 
few real marriages if people were not tied so 
tight at the start as to strangle them.’ Surely 
if men were not tied very tightly to their 
wives they would soon desert them for new 
ones. That is the reason the churchmen have 
made the bond indissoluble. I am glad, though, 
Rae hates what she calls orthodox marriage ; 
for on that account, she will never marry, and 
I shall have her always with me.” 

Mrs. Raymond’s face brightened at the last 
reflection, and she looked up from her fancy- 
work to rejoice her eyes with the sight of her 
beautiful daughter. She took delight in watch- 
ing Rae even when her daughter’s back was 


113 


wholly turned to her, as now— and she could 
see only her dark, glossy hair twisted in an odd 
but graceful knot at the back of her head, the 
beautiful nape of her fine neck, and the per- 
fectly fitting back of her rose -colored morning 
gown. 

For some time Mrs. Raymond continued to 
sit looking at her daughter, and to muse idly. 
The day was one of autumn’s best, full of hazy 
charm and restfulness after the hot, fruitful 
summer, and the air came softly in through the 
open windows loaded with the perfume of 
flowers, and rhythmic with bird-song. She 
would have enjoyed walking about the old- 
fashioned flower-garden if only Rae could have 
accompanied her. However, she would wait 
for Rae to finish her letters, then they would 
have a walk or a ride before dinner. 

Finally Rae stopped writing, gathering up as 
she did so several sheets of paper, and turning, 
around on her revolving chair, said : 

“Well, mother, I have been writing to that 
strange advertiser, who desires culture of a 
woman.” 

“ Please, Rae, do not send it. Have you 
forgotten what some investigator of women 
who answer personals said, — ‘that there was 
something defective about these women, some- 
thing abnormal, or at the very least they gave 


Ill 


evidence of being out of harmony with their 
social environments ’ ? ” 

“ No matter what a woman does, some man 
will find her abnormal for doing it. Why 
should a woman, or a mere girl as is usually the 
case, be any more abnormal for answering a 
personal, than a man for writing it? As for 
giving evidence that they are out of harmony 
with their social environment, that is just what 
all women who are not mere animals or autom- 
atons, should be doing continually. A man- 
made environment can never be a harmonious 
environment for woman any more than a 
woman-made environment could answer for a 
man. But if you feel so about my answering 
the advertisement I will read you what I have 
written, and which I mean to mail, even though 
the fact should be made known in some way, 
and I be taken for a fool. If one is going to 
stop every time one thinks of doing a thing, and 
consider what people will think of it, or of the 
one who does it, one would never do anything 
worth the doing. 

“ Lock Box 222. 

“Sir : — 

“ As I have the honor to be an American woman, 
and as it is a new departure for a man to recognize the fact 
that he can obtain culture from a woman, I, for one, make 
haste to answer your advertisement. 


115 


“ Yes, I think America may well be proud of her women, 
proud that she has given them more opportunities of cul- 
ture, more freedom of conduct than any other country has 
seen fit to do, and proud again that her women have proved 
themselves worthy of this trust. 

(“ Of course the women have mostly rustled 
and crowded the men till they have gotten 
these things, like the importunate widow we 
read of in the Bible. But then it wouldn’t do 
to say so ; the men have to be flattered to get 
anything at all out of them,”) Rae explained 
aside to her mother, and then continued : 


“I long now to see our country take still another step, — 
entrust her women with yet greater privileges. I have ref- 
erence to their political enfranchisement. I wish this 
new trust to be inaugurated, not alone because I believe 
women will then regard themselves with the self-respect 
God intended, and be better wives and mothers, but be- 
cause I believe that unless this advancing step is taken, all 
will be lost that has been so hardly won. 

“It is a law of nature that if we will not advance we 
must retrograde. 

“ It seems to me that America is slow in taking this new 
step, and that, in consequence, she is already losing some- 
thing of her robust love of liberty and righteousness. 
Where are the new, strong, consecrated souls to take the 
place of those who have done their work so well ? 

“ That country is the greatest which produces the great- 
est people. America has certainly raised up a greater peo- 
ple during her comparatively few years of apprenticeship 
than any other country. This is due to three causes, a 
great new world for proper environment, progressive conse- 


116 


crated souls for progenitors, and a high ideal, — that is, the 
establishment of a government of, by and for the people. 

“ But if she would realize her ideal she must recognize 
her women as half her people, and entrust them with the 
privileges belonging to them. No government of men, by 
men, and for men principally, can ever become a legitimate 
government of the people. Under such a one-sided rule 
the masses will, eventually, go to the wall. This has 
always been the case and America is proving no exception 
to the rule. Monopoly of the nation’s resources is sure to 
follow monopolistic rule, the rule of one sex over both 
sexes, to the exclusion of the mother element in humanity. 
God in his inscrutable wisdom has seen fit to divide his 
gifts to humanity between the sexes, and it follows that if 
we would have an all-round government, the women must 
have their full share in it. 

“Not until that day arrives can we hope to have a 
government whose basis will be mutual good-will, love and 
helpful cooperation, rather than brute force and brutal com- 
petition. Emerson tells us, that the power of love as the 
basis of a state has never been tried. Furthermore, he 
asserts what is only too true ; that — 

“ ‘ We live in a very low state of the world, and pay un- 
willing tribute to government founded on force. There is 
not among the most religious and instructed men of the 
most religious and civil nations, a reliance on the moral 
sentiment, and a sufficient belief in the unity of things to 
persuade them that society can be maintained without arti- 
ficial restraints, as well as the solar system ; or that the 
private citizen might be reasonable, and a good neighbor, 
without the hint of a jail or a confiscation. What is 
strange, too, there never was in any man sufficient faith in 
the power of rectitude to inspire him with the broad 
design of renovating the state on the principle of right and 
love.’ 

“There ;you see whftt one of the greatest aod wisest of 


117 

your sex says about the goverumeut of men ; most assur- 
edly governments rest on force and are honeycombed with 
distrust. It is because of the immense distrust of your sex 
that women from the beginning have been put down and 
kept down. Women, of course, go to the other extreme ; 
they are natural believers and dare all for love. 

“ I am making this letter too long. 

“Very truly yours, 

“Lock Box 333.” 


NINE 


“We have had the morality of submission and the 
morality of chivalry and generosity ; the time is now come 
for the morality of justice.” 

— John Stuart Mill. 

Two days after the sending of the letter Rae 
was loitering in the garden enjoying the soft 
autumn air, when George Washington, the col- 
ored boy who ran errands “ fur the missuses ” 
appeared with a broad grin on his face. As he 
approached her, he drew from his inside pocket 
several letters, among which was one directed 
simply to “ Lock Box 333.” 

George Washington was a curious soul, and 
had wondered all the way from the post office 
who had sent his young missus a letter without 
putting her name on the cover. Something 
“ mighty quar ” about Lock Box being oii’t, he 
thought. 

As he handed the letters to Rae, he said, 
sympathetically : 

“ Hope dey hab no bad news in ’em ! ” 

“ Doubtless not,” replied Rae, indifferently, 
guessing at once where lay George Washing- 
ton’s fears. 

“Mebbe you’d like me to take Lock Box 
118 


ii& 

letter to the other missus,” pursued George 
Washington in a last hope to find out some- 
thing about “dat ar quar letter.” 

“ No, I am going to her immediately. I shall 
want nothing more this evening. Good-night, 
George Washington.” 

Rae always took the pains to call her devoted 
colored attendant George Washington, because 
he had explained to her : 

“ Miss Rae, de George ain’t good fur nuffin’ 
widout de Washington to it. Dat am de dis- 
tinguishin’ part.” 

With an admiring glance at “ de handsome 
missus ” and a respectful salutation, George 
Washington took his departure. Leaving her 
seat in the delightful wide-walked garden with 
its lordly trees and pretty plats and groups of 
flowers, Rae sought her mother through the 
large old mansion. 

Glancing in at the main rooms below, she as- 
cended the stairs, and presently found the lady 
of her search resting on a sofa in the cosy up- 
stairs sitting-room. Mrs. Raymond was taste- 
fully attired in a soft summer silk, fashioned 
much like a tea-gown ; she was well preserved, 
even youthful and blooming. Though possibly 
her appearance was due even more to the 
youthful manner in which she wore her bronze- 
brown hair, and the pretty way her robes were 


120 


cut and trimmed. All this was done to please 
Rae, who frequently declared that there was no 
sense in people, women especially, rushing into 
old age. 

“ But people will think I want another hus- 
band,” protested Mrs. Raymond. Then Rae 
would reply impatiently ; 

“ Do let us have done with the nightmare of 
what people think. Let us do what is graceful 
and nice and right, and let people think as they 
please.” 

Rae took a rocking-chair and brought it up 
near her mother, then proceeded to examine the 
mail. The first letter she glanced over was 
from Retta, announcing that she was the happy 
mother of the prettiest babe any one ever laid 
eyes on, “ Such a darling, a boy, and the very 
image of his papa ! ” 

“ That marriage is no doubt all right,” com- 
mented Rae, as she finished reading Retta’s 
letter. 

“ Why do you say that ? ” asked her mother, 
reaching for her embroidery. 

“ Because Retta is so happy.” 

“Don’t you think Sidney is happy too?” 
questioned her mother, for at one time she had 
half suspected Rae and Sidney of being in love 
with each other. 

“Oh, reasonably so; who can help loving 


121 


Retta ? Still, it does not make so much differ- 
ence as to just how happy the man is in his 
wedded life, if he is capable of keeping his un- 
happiness to himself. It is of supreme impor- 
tance, though, that the wife, who is to usher 
into the world new souls, should be happy 
and loving — in love with her husband — if you 
please. She stands the chance then of rearing 
children who will one day rise up and call her 
blessed, and be a blessing to themselves.” 

“ How odd, Rae, that you should know these 
things. Girls in my day were too modest to 
discuss delicate subjects like love, marriage, 
and maternity.” 

“ Times are different now, mother. Girls 
know of such things earlier. The press of the 
day brings the whole world to their feet. If 
girls are ignorant on any great subjects, or 
small ones for that matter, it is their own fault. 
But listen to what Lock Box has to say. It is 
quite impersonal, and I can only guess he is not 
an American. I presume he is some foreigner 
who admires American ladies.” 

“ Lock Box 333 . 

“ American Lady : — 

“I am much obliged to yon for your prompt, excel- 
lent letter. It was the very real product of the intellect of 
a very real, progressive American woman, and I congratu- 
late myself on my good fortune. 


“Your assertion that the governments of men have al- 
ways rested on a basis of brute force and are honeycombed 
with distrust, while not in keeping with the present ideas 
held of the brotherhood of man, is true. I thought, how- 
ever, that your own government — pardon me ! the govern- 
ment of your men — was contrary to the rule, and rested 
mainly for stability on the good will of the people who 
maintain it. I know that your standing army is insignifi- 
cant. 

“Yet, your country seems falling into line with older 
governments ; witness the activity your nation displays in 
building and fitting up war vessels, and in the introduction 
of military drill into some of your public schools. These 
are ominous indications; though, of course, they are nothing 
but indications when compared to the menacing war estab- 
lishments of Europe. 

“Just consider what we have to endure on the conti- 
nent ; what our distrust of each other costs us. There is 
Russia, who has under arms 858,000 soldiers; Germany, 
580,000; Fiance, 512,000; Austria, 380,000; Italy, 300,000 ; 
England, 280,000; Spain, 100,000; and Belgium, 31,000. 
Even in times of peace our soldiers cost our people nearly 
a $1,000,000,000 per year, besides the expense of the navies, 
which is half as much more. 

“The brunt of all this enormous military expense falls 
mainly upon the toiling masses, keeping them in poverty 
and in a fettered, benighted condition, not to speak of the 
multitudes who find a premature death, who succumb to 
burdens they cannot sustain. 

“Consider also the moral deterioration incident to life in 
barracks, and garrisons, to the one-sided development of 
man in the first fiush or prime of manhood. These man- 
made and brute-force-maintained governments are not the 
best ; and from time to time they are weighed in the bal- 
ance and found wanting ; then they topple to the earth. 

“Still, I am convinced, that so far as America is con- 


123 


cerned, the time is not far distant when both sexes will 
cooperate in all departments of social and political life. At 
this point I am reminded of an article I ran across in look- 
ing over some bound volumes of Harper in the library 
here. Since you seem somewhat discouraged over the out- 
look, I will quote freely from it to reassure you. This 
article has to do with Chicago people, but I suppose these 
are but a fair sample of the whole ; more wide-awake than 
some communities, but yet not so aggressive as others, 
since I learn that three of your states have secured equal 
suffrage. The writer of this article is Julian Ralph. He 
admits that : ‘ There is a wholly gay and butterfly set in 

Chicago, but it is small, and the distinctive peculiarity of 
it lies in the fact, that in nearly all the societies and move- 
ments of which I am going to write we see the names of 
rich and stylish women. They entertain elegantly, are 
accustomed to travel, and rank with any others in the 
town, yet are associated with those forceful women whose 
astonishing activity has worked wonders in that city.’ 

“ As you are doubtless more or less familiar with the 
history of Chicago’s remarkable Woman’s Club, I will omit 
the description of it, and proceed to call your attention to 
the doings of the committees appointed by it for special 
work in new flelds of labor for women. And first the Re- 
form Committee : 

“ ‘ This committee began its earnest work with the 
County Insane Asylum, where it was found that hundreds 
of women were herded without proper attention, three in 
a bed sometimes ; with insufficient food, with only a coun- 
terpane between them and the freezing winter night, and 
no flannels by day. The root of the trouble was the old 
one ; the root of all public evil — the appointment of public 
servants for political reasons and purposes. . . . Mrs. 

Helen S. Shedd was at the front of the asylum work, 
which is still going on. 

“‘She led the Reform Committee into the poorhouse, 


124 


where they went as they always do, with the plea, “There 
are women there ; we want a share in the charge of that 
place for the sake of our sex.” They have adopted the 
motto, “What are you doing with the women and chil- 
dren?” and they find that the politicians try to frighten 
the women. They say: “You don’t want to pry into 
such places and things; you can’t stand it.” But the 
Chicago ladies have proved that they can stand a great 
deal as we shall see, on behalf of humanity. 

‘ ‘ ‘ While I was in Chicago in August some of the women 
were looking over the plans for four new police stations. 
It transpired as they talked that they have succeeded in es- 
tablishing a Woman’s Advisory Board of the Police. . . . 

“‘The Education Committee of this indomitable club 
discovered, a few years ago, that the statute providing for 
compulsory education was not enforced. The ladies got up 
a tremendous agitation, and many of the leading men, as 
well as women, went to the capitol at Springfield and se- 
cured the passage of a mandatory statute insuring the at- 
tendance at school of children from six to fourteen years 
during a period of sixteen weeks each year. Five women 
were appointed among the truant officers, and the law was 
strictly carried out. It was found that it works well to 
employ women in this capacity. They are invited into the 
houses by the mothers, who tell them as they would not 
tell men, the true reasons for keeping their children from 
school ; as for instance, that they have but one pair of 
shoes for six children. A beautiful charity resulted from 
this work. 

“ ‘One of the new undertakings of the Chicago women 
is the task set for itself by the Municipal Reform League. 
, , . The work performed is all in the direction of 

forcing the public officials to do their duty. The Health 
Department is in charge of the alleys, and the Street De- 
partment of the streets.’ 

“Now, that I have called your attention to wonderful 


125 


doings of your wonderful country women, let me, for a 
moment, ask it in behalf of Chicago men, who are, it ap- 
pears, quite ready to cooperate and forward their women in 
self-chosen reform work. It is a woman’s testimony as 
given by Julian Ralph in the same article. 

“ She said that : ‘ the Chicago men not only spring to the 
help of a woman, who tries to get along, but they hate to 
see her fail, and they won’t allow her to fail if they can 
help it.’ She remarked that : ‘ the reason active Chicago 
women do not show the aggressive, harsh spirit and lack of 
graceful femininity which are often associated with women 
who step out of the domestic sphere, is because the Chicago 
women have not had to fight their way. The men have 
helped them.’ 

“You see I have good reasons for believing that the time 
is not far distant when America shall establish a govern- 
ment of the people, not only in name, but in reality. 

“I wanted to say something in this letter about your 
last assertion ‘ that women are natural believers and dare 
all for love,’ but if I do, I shall make this letter too long. 
Will reply to that assertion next time, if I am so fortunate 
as to hear from you again. 

“Very truly yours, 

“ Lock Box 222.” 

A few days after the receipt of this letter 
Rae came swiftly up the broad walk toward 
her mother, who was enjoying a glorious sun- 
set from an old-fashioned garden-seat. 

“ Mother — old lady ! she exclaimed, as she 
kissed her roundly, “ whom do you think I ran 
across to-day in the post office ? ” 

“Somebody you must like pretty well,” re- 
plied the mother, “judging from your radiant 


126 


looks. I believe you grow handsomer every 
day, Rae.” 

“Thank you, mother. But I want you to 
guess, I want to see whether I should laugh 
at you, for not having the least bit of Yankee 
blood in your veins.” 

“ Indeed ! Well then, I guess the somebody 
who has suddenly put in an appearance here, 
is the same person who has dogged our foot- 
steps half round the globe, Paul Petrovitch 
Alferiew, the Russian.” 

“ Ah, mother mine, you are right ; you will 
be a Yankee yet if you live long enough. It 
was really Paul; and I was glad to see him, in 
spite of all the trouble I have had with him. 
Indeed, I believe that every time he turns up 
I am gladder than ever to see his wholesome 
countenance. Heavens ! we had such a des- 
perate argument the last time he proposed to 
me, that I supposed I should never have the op- 
portunity of looking into his charming blue 
eyes again.” 

“ Is he looking as stalwart, as full of prime- 
val energy as ever ? ” 

“Well, no, he is much thinner. He has been 
ill, and when he was not smiling, there was a 
melancholy look about his eyes that pained me. 
Ah, well, he is almost recovered, and the rosy 
tint is beginning to be visible in his cheeks.” 


127 


“ Does his hair curl as closely to his head as 
it used to do ? ” 

“ Yes ; and he loomed up above me in the 
same old, broad-shouldered fashion. Mother, 
do you know, it flashed across my mind the in- 
stant I saw him that he was Lock Box 222. 
You remember those ridiculous remarks I made 
in one of our rambles in China, that if I ever 
ran across a man who was not so self-conceited 
but that he believed he could really learn some- 
thing of a woman I would marry him on the 
spot, provided he would have me ? It all came 
back so vividly ; the strange Chinese city, the 
narrow streets, the queer, one-storied architec- 
ture, the swarming people. And so when he 
rushed up to me grasping both my hands in 
his, half crushing them for joy, I could not help 
laughing and exclaiming : 

“ ‘ Ah, here is Lock Box 222. You have 
adopted a new role, Paul Petrovitch ! ’ 

“ ‘ Yes, Rae, and I am happy to say you have 
promptly followed suit.’ Here he shook my 
hands with renewed ardor, and laughed in that 
funny fashion of his. 

“As Paul seemed perfectly oblivious of the 
fact that the people in the post office were re- 
garding us with amused amazement, and as, 
too, he continued to hold my hands in his after 


128 


lie had stopped shaking them, I was obliged to 
urge : 

“ ‘ Come, let us get into the street and find 
our way home. We can then chat at our 
leisure.* 

“We did get into the street, but listening to 
his eager talk I forgot all about George Wash- 
ington and the carriage until we were half way 
home ; then I looked back, and sure enough, 
there was George Washington with a broad 
grin on his face, slowly following us with the 
bays. Thinking that Paul might be tired, I 
asked him to get into the carriage with me and 
drive home. He said he had an appointment 
which he must hasten to meet, but that he 
would be up this evening. So we must look 
our prettiest, mother mine ! I wish I had been 
giving more attention to my music. Paul will 
be sure to ask me to go over some of our old 
duets together. He always carries his violin 
with him, to keep him out of mischief as he 
says ; but that cannot be true, he is too solid 
and serious-minded to be guilty of any kind of 
flippancy at his age, — twenty-eight to-morrow, 
he tells me.” 

Though it was true that Paul Petrovitch Al- 
feriew had the appearance of a typical Russian, 
he was in reality but a semi-Russian, having had 
an American mother. When our Civil War was 


129 


in progress, was in fact in its most desperate 
stage, Paul’s father, the bold Ivan Petrovitch 
Alferiew determined to lend his strong arm to 
the cause of human freedom and made haste to 
join the ranks of the North. 

After passing unharmed through many a 
bloody battle, toward the close of the war he 
was seriously wounded ; but owing to the faith- 
ful care of his nurse he not only lived, but at 
length recovered something of his former vigor. 
By this time the war was happily ended, and 
Ivan’s thoughts and longings turned to his na- 
tive land. Oh, if he could only lend a hand, 
alas, a far from strong one now, toward freeing 
the multitudes of serfs, then he could die con- 
tent. He would return to Russia and see what 
he could do. He made his preparations for de- 
parture, and had bidden adieu to all his old 
comrades, and was ready to say farewell to the 
woman who had saved his life. He had left her 
to the very last, fearing that on her account he 
would be unable to take his departure unless 
his arrangements should be so far completed as 
to forbid his changing them. During his illness, 
he had become devoted to this lovely Southern 
woman who, though desiring the slaves to be 
freed, yet sympathized with the South, feeling 
that Northern greed had had much to do toward 
precipitating the war. Her familj^ also, had 


130 


been divided in sentiment : one brother having 
fallen in the ranks of the North ; the other, a 
charming, hot-headed young cavalier, having 
given his life, a willing sacrifice, to the cause of 
states’ rights. 

It never occurred to Ivan that his love was 
returned, so perfect was the composure of the 
lovely Southerner, not a glance betraying other 
than the interest of the careful, sympathetic 
nurse. Ah yes, the great bashful Russian would 
have as soon expected a celestial visitant to 
have fallen in love with him, as that the beauti- 
ful young American with the sad look in her 
dusky eyes, should return his love. 

But love will out, provided it be deep and 
strong and true enough. Scarcely had Ivan 
taken in his the delicate palm of this woman 
than he was quite unmanned. Tears filled his 
eyes, and his limbs, not yet strong, grew 
strangely weak. He was obliged hurriedly to 
seat himself, when he bowed his great shaggy 
head in his hands utterly overcome. For an 
instant the nurse hesitated, looked at the bowed 
figure irresolutely, then went to Ivan’s side, 
knelt down by him and put her arms around 
his neck, and laid her soft cheek against one of 
the hands supporting his head. Fie felt the 
thrill of her touch, which, like a miracle, turned 
his bitter tears of grief into tears of joy, and he 


131 


took the gentle being in his arms, and held her 
tightly to his breast. 

“ Ah, my little dove, you love me, you love 
me ! ” he said. 

When he asked her: 

“ Shall we stay here, or go to Russia to help 
free my own people ? ” 

She answered quickly : “ I will go with you 

to Russia.” 

And so it was arranged. They were married 
that same evening; the next day found them 
en route for Ivan’s native land, a land of strange 
extremes, but yet a land of rich promise. 

What became of brave Ivan Petrovitch Alfe- 
riew and Viola, his devoted wife? Their story 
is almost too sad to tell. He languished many 
years in a dreary Siberian prison, and she died 
of a broken heart. And that was how it hap- 
pened that Paul passed but a small portion of 
each year in his ancestral home. He became 
a wanderer, spending most of his time in Eng- 
land, where some of his beloved countrymen 
dwelt. It was in London that he first met Rae 
Raymond ; being introduced to her there by 
a mutual friend of his mother’s, and of hers. 


TEN 


^‘Now no one charges that the legitimate uses of the 
marriage institution are otherwise than good. But a social 
institution whose uses are intrinsically good may be very 
badly administered and so produce mischief. This, I al- 
lege, is the case with the marriage institution. It is not 
administered for the living, or with reference to the pres- 
ent state of society, but only traditionally, or with reference 
to some wholly past state of society.” 

— Henry James. 

The first part of the evening passed away in 
the most delightful manner. Rae had never 
looked more charming nor talked with more 
piquant, fluent grace. 

Being a lover of pretty clothes, she was ar- 
rayed in a handsome robe which set off to per- 
fection her beautiful figure, and threw into re- 
lief her fine complexion. She dressed well, not 
from a spirit of vanity, for she rarely gave her 
clothes a thought when once arrayed in them, 
excepting of course, when she was making a 
business of having her wardrobe overhauled, or 
a new costume added, but because, as she once 
laughingly said to her mother, “I am bound to 
show that I appreciate the fact that Nature has 
given me an attractive exterior.” 

132 


133 


Mrs. Raymond had replied with pardonable 
pride : 

“I am not sure but that you would do well 
to dress simply and inexpensively. Dressing 
richly and elegantly as you do, people attribute 
half your beauty to fine feathers.” 

However, although Mrs. Raymond was 
capable of giving good advice to Rae in regard 
to simple attire, in this respect she herself was 
a sad delinquent, having long been noted for 
her rich and becoming toilettes. Her robe this 
evening was of expensive material and elabor- 
ately trimmed in lace and jet, and was beauti- 
fully made. You would have said at once, 
“Mrs. Raymond has always had the luxury of 
a full purse, and has never been obliged to 
count the cost of an extra yard of material, or 
the question of quality in the matter of trim- 
mings ” ; and you would have been quite cor- 
rect. 

Paul Petrovitch Alferiew, on the contrary, 
had poor taste in dress and never looked to 
worse advantage or felt more ill at ease than 
when attired in a snug-fitting dress-suit. Such 
was his predicament on this evening of reunion 
with the two ladies who were — to speak in 
romance fashion — all the world to him ; par- 
ticularly, of course, the younger one. Some- 
how the clothes were not in character. Paul 


134 

would have felt more like himself in an ordi- 
nary traveling suit or in a working outfit; 
nature having intended him for a man of af- 
fairs and deeds, rather than for a man of grace- 
ful speech and ceremonies, or of fashionable ob- 
servances. 

However, it was so good to see and to be 
near his two charming friends, that presently 
his feeling of strangeness wore off and he was 
chatting and laughing with his old-time free- 
dom. Ah, to be sure, how well they had be- 
come acquainted in the hit-and-miss and under- 
all and every-sort-of circumstance, under which 
they had traveled together abroad. So well, 
that after a time Paul found himself beside Rae 
on the sofa. Her mother occupied her favorite 
easy chair beside Rae, and the trio were then as 
close together as they had been many times be- 
fore. Reminiscence after reminiscence, scene 
after scene, group after group of people, or it 
might be some individual, remarkable, or clever, 
or very companionable, were brought up for 
discussion, or lively remark, or piquant criti- 
cism, or simply for gay laughter. The time 
sped rapidly, till finally Paul said : 

“ It must be getting late. I will go.” 

“ Not until we have had one piece of music. 
I saw you smuggle your violin in when you 
came,” promptly replied Rae. 


135 


“ If it is not too late ? ” responded Paul, as 
he looked at Mrs. Raymond. 

“Never mind,” said Rae. “You know you 
will sleep better to-night if we try that new 
duet you brought up. Please, get out your 
violin, — or wait, I will take it out for you. 
Dear old violin, how natural you look ! ” ob- 
served Rae, as she carefully lifted out of its 
case this companion of many a ramble and 
journey. “ I suppose, if possible,” she added, 
turning again to Paul, “ that you play better 
than ever, while I play decidedly worse.” 

“ Surely not ! ” Paul said with a rueful 
look. 

“ Ah, you have begun to compliment me in 
the same old fashion,” said Rae, laughing, and 
as Paul looked astonished, continued: “I 
really do feel condemned, but you know how it 
is. In spending my time reading and wonder- 
ing how the world is to be reformed, like all re- 
formers, I forget to reform myself. Every 
week I think I will begin my regular practice, 
but the weeks slip by and the practicing is not 
done — only a little playing when a musical 
mood seizes me. Notwithstanding this, the 
piano is in excellent order.” 

“ Yes, so I perceive,” replied Paul, in the 
midst of tuning his violin. 

At this point in the musical performance 


136 


Mrs. Raymond rose and coming toward the 
amateur artists said with some hesitation : 

“ I think I will retire. I have a slight head- 
ache. I will hear this new duet when Rae has 
practiced her part, and can give better satisfac- 
tion than will likely be the case to-night.” 

She gave her hand to Paul as she finished 
speaking, he shook it warmly, and bade her, 
“ Good-night and happy dreams.” Rae kissed 
her mother tenderly ; Mrs. Raymond could 
hardly have slept otherwise. 

The new duet did not prove to be very dif- 
ficult, the air was catchy and charming, and 
Rae thought the performance was quite a suc- 
cess ; so she fully expected as in times past to 
be called on for another and yet another selec- 
tion, Paul was usually “such a music fiend.” 
To her surprise, however, he laid down his 
violin with a singularly melancholy smile and 
turned away, saying : 

“I can play no more. Music has lost its 
charm, has died out of my soul.” 

“ That is because you have not yet regained 
your health. Your soul will be full of music 
and joy when that is restored.” 

Rae answered gaily, hoping to ward off dan- 
gerous reflections ; but Paul was not to be thus 
thwarted : 

“ You don’t ask what made me ill, nor seem 


137 


to be aware that I am not the Russian you used 
to joke for being so full of the wild health of 
the steppes, ‘a belated primeval giant,’ you 
said.” 

Still hoping to avert serious talk which might 
lead to embittering controversy, Rae glanced up 
at Paul in her sauciest manner and asked: 

“ What made you ill, Paul Petrovitch?” 

“What made me ill — ^you, you incorrigible 
sorceress .of the new world. Though you can 
outwit me, I still can overpower you. Come, 
you must talk to me, you must tell me why you 
everlastingly say ‘ nay ’ to me, when it should 
be ‘yea.’” 

As he finished speaking, he took Rae’s hand 
and led her to the sofa. She felt unable, nor 
did she wish to resist Paul’s firm clasp. With- 
out relinquishing her hand Paul urgently in- 
sisted : 

“Why, why will you not accept my love, 
why will you not be my dear wife? What 
rubbish is it that makes it impossible ? For 
heaven’s sake — for sweet love’s sake, for the 
sake of our own future happiness and success, 
which I am confident is bound up each with 
the other, do let us try to come to some under- 
standing.” 

“ How can we ? I am tired of repeating, of 
telling you over and over again how much I 


138 

despise our orthodox marriage system, and 
that it is impossible to me. The more I con- 
sider this church relic of barbarous times, its 
irrational and immoral vows, the more vexed I 
am at the servility of people. Do you know it 
makes me actually angry when a man proposes 
marriage to me. It seems absurd, demoralizing, 
outrageous to me, that two young people — 
fools— should be driven into pledging them- 
selves irrevocably to each other for. better or 
worse, and so long as they both shall live. 
How can such marriages prove to be anything 
but for the worse ? They help fill our asylums, 
our jails and our hospitals. Their fruits are 
known in the make-up of the political world 
that consists of selfish tyrants on the one hand 
and servile masses on the other. Every man 
and woman of us ought to live and ought to 
marry for the betterment, and only for the bet- 
terment of ourselves and of humanity. There 
is no step in our lives so important for either 
good or ill, as marriage. We find this proven 
in literature which gives an infallible record of 
the nations and of individuals. Marriage is the 
central theme, and the climax in the majority of 
all the books that are written, and rightly so, 
involving as it does such immense responsibil- 
ities and consequences, not only to the partic- 
ipants, but to society and also to unborn gener- 


139 


ations. But what is this conventional marriage 
of which all modern wooing is the precursor ? 
It is an alluring trap baited with the specious 
vow ‘for better or worse until deatli us do 
part.’ Alas ! once caught the victims suffer a 
tliousand heartaches, shed countless tears, en- 
dure tremendous woes, and undergo such de- 
moralizing self-analysis that they are ready for 
almost any fate. Heavens! why will people 
allow themselves to be beguiled into this sort 
of thing? Will nothing teach them better? 
The growth of common sense, the love of lib- 
erty, the increasing numbers of self-supporting 
women leading independent and self-respecting 
lives? Is it any wonder, Paul, that marriage 
is beginning to be shunned as the ‘ suicide of 
love’? With one hand the Church offers a 
premium to celibacy ; with the other she is per- 
fectly willing to bless a loveless marriage. The 
Church invented the lock to this trap ; and now 
it is the Church which sets up a howl whenever 
the state, occasionally for certain desperate 
causes, forces this lock and lets the victims free. 
The state encourages marriage and therefore 
as a good physician must treat those who have 
embraced unfortunate marriages, with justice. 
Furthermore, the state now realizes that for its 
own preservation, it must add to justice, mercy, 
and equalize burdens by taxing unmarried men, 


140 


by dowering penniless girls, and, as is now the 
case in France, by securing important privi- 
leges to the heads of families. 

“ O, Paul Petrovitch, though I should live to 
the age of Methuselah, and single blessedness 
become as monotonous as the interminable 
steppes of Russia, no such marriage for me I ” 

Paul sat seemingly lost in thought while Rae 
flashed, rather than spoke, her impetuous 
thoughts. He was determined not to get 
angry with her this time, and so lose all chance 
of winning his suit. This interview must not 
terminate as his last had done, when after an 
angry controversy he had bidden her good- 
night, to learn next day that she and her mother 
had left for home. Paul noting Rae’s look of 
gloomy abstraction, felt that she had no inten- 
tion of breaking the silence that followed her 
last words, and did not know but that she was 
afraid to say more lest she should lose control 
of her tongue and temper, not an uncommon 
thing with her when marriage was the theme, 
and so he said sympathetically : 

“ Since I have been giving so much attention 
to this subject I agree with you, Rae, in feeling 
that the time is past for imposing upon people 
pledges which are irrational to say the least. 
By this time everybody ought to be pretty well 
convinced that all is fallibility from the Adam 


141 


of Genesis to the Adam of to-day; and that 
fallible creatures should not be made to pledge 
themselves as if infallible, or as if man was 
made for the observance of the orthodox mar- 
riage rite, rather than that the rite itself is 
only one of a multitude of marital experiments 
for furthering the happiness and evolution of 
humanity. I am of the opinion, though, that 
life is a series of compromises, and when one 
must make a choice of evils, one should, of 
course, choose the least. We know each other 
well enough to be pretty sure that we can al- 
ways love, honor, cherish and serve one an- 
other. Or, if 3^ou do not like that word, serve, 
in your part, tell the minister to exchange it 
for the one in mine, cherish I think it is, for I 
am quite willing to pledge myself to serve you 
till I die.” 

Paul put his arm around Rae to emphasize his 
last remark, but Rae seemed quite oblivious of 
his action and spoke as impetuously as before. 

“ Oh yes, Paul, but you are in love now ; wait 
till we have been married five years, marital 
love lasts no longer than that, I am told, and I 
shall have developed into a Rosamond Vincey 
or you into a Grandcourt; wait until love has 
been supplanted by hate, and our enforced 
companionship has given birth to vicious feel- 
ing. How could we, after that, maintain any 


142 


feeling of self-respect in regard to a pledge that 
had proved impossible of fulfillment? Must 
we keep on for worse till one of us dies, or dis- 
graces himself by playing the part of deserter, 
or resorts to some trickery to obtain release 
from bonds too galling to be borne ? ” 

Paul replied, seriously ; 

“ The marriages you have referred to, those 
of Lydgate and Rosamond, and Gwendolyn 
and Grandcourt were phenomenal failures. 
They were exceptions. Most people jog along 
very well together. They know that it is not 
easy to free themselves from the marital bond, 
not possible in this place, for instance, or in 
Roman Catholic countries, not possible for re- 
spectable people who care for their good names, 
so they make the best of their marriages even, 
if the tie does not meet their expectations, or 
perhaps their needs.” 

“ I beg to differ from you, I don’t think they 
do jog along .together very well : if we are to 
judge from the literature of the day ; or, the 
proceedings of the divorce court; or, take into 
account the people who come under our own 
observation. I, personally, would not put up 
with the treatment accorded to the generality 
of wives. Before I get angry, or, possibly to 
ensure my not getting angry in talking over 
this part of the subject, let me read you some- 


143 


thing I found the other day in one of Annie 
Besant’s books ; it expresses my own views, if 
anything, better than I can do it myself.” 

Rae stepped into the library and presently 
came back with a book; turning the leaves 
rapidly, she found what she wanted, and began 
to read in her clear, contralto tones : 

“ ‘ It may be hoped that when divorce is more 
easily obtainable, the majority of marriages will 
be far happier than they are now. Half the 
unhappiness of married life arises from the too 
great feeling of security which grows out of 
the indissoluble character of the tie. The hus- 
band is very different from the lover ; the wife 
from the betrothed ; the ready attention, the 
desire to please, the eager courtesy, which char- 
acterized the lover, disappear when possession 
has become certain ; the daintiness, the gaiety, 
the attractiveness which marked the betrothed 
are no longer to be seen in the wife whose pos- 
session is secure ; in society a lover may be 
known by his attention to his betrothed, a hus- 
band by his indifference to his wife. If divorce 
was the result of jarring at home married life 
would very rapidly change ; hard words, harsh- 
ness, petulance would be checked where those 
who had won the love desired to keep it, and 
attractiveness would no longer be dropped on 
the threshold of the home.’ ” 


144 


“ Oh yes, I suppose there is some truth in 
what Mrs. Besant says, but she had an unus- 
ually unfortunate marital experience and nat- 
urally sees the dark side of marriage, and prob- 
ably attributes the blackness of it to the indis- 
solubility of the tie. There are two sides to 
this question as to every other. I should like 
for my part to be tied to you just as tight as 
possible. I could not imagine myself ever be- 
ing indifferent to you, Rae Raymond!” Paul’s 
gaze was full of love. 

“ That’s the way you all talk,” returned Rae, 
turning over the leaves of the book, unmindful 
of the tender glance Paul was bestowing upon 
her. “ Here is what a poet says on the same 
subject.” 

“ ‘ The present system of restraint does no 
more in the majority of instances than make 
hypocrites or open enemies. Persons of deli- 
cacy and virtue, unhappily united to those 
whom they find impossible to love, spend the 
'loveliest season of their life in unproductive 
efforts to appear otherwise than they are, for 
the sake of the feelings* of their partner, of the 
welfare of their mutual offspring ; those of less 
generosity and refinement openly avow their 
disappointment, and linger out the remnant of 
that union which only death can dissolve, in a 
state of incurable bickering and hostility. The 


145 


early education of the children takes its color 
from the squabbles of the parents; they are 
nursed in a systematic school of ill-humor, 
violence and falsehood. Had they been suffered 
to part at the moment when indifference ren- 
dered their union irksome, they would have 
been spared many years of misery ; they would 
have connected themselves more suitably, and 
would have found happiness in the society 
denied them by the despotism of marriage. 

. . . . Love is inevitably consequent 

on the perception of loveliness. Love withers 
under constraint; its very essence is liberty; it 
is compatible neither with obedience, jealousy, 
nor fear ; it is therefore most pure, perfect and 
unlimited, where its votaries live in confidence, 
equality and unreserve.’ ” 

“ Good, very good . . . but would 

there not be danger that all these unhappy 
married people you speak of would make a 
rush for freedom if the law was relaxed and di- 
vorce made easy ? Think what an unsettling 
in all the relations of life there might be ! 
There would soon be the fierce competition and 
instability in married life, that there is now in 
the industrial world, in finance and in politics.” 

Rae responded, quickly : 

“From whence come all the wars and rumors 
of wars, fierce contentions, fierce competitions 


146 


that we read of and see going on about us ? 
The first murder we read of in the Bible was 
perpetrated by Cain. Before his birth, Eve had 
been subjected to Adam on account of the curse 
which was thought to have been called down 
upon the human family because she had desired 
wisdom for herself and her husband. From 
that time to this, free access to the means of 
obtaining wisdom have been denied woman, and 
by some means or other each new Eve has been 
subjected to each new Adam. I repeat, there 
is no way of judging of a tree but by the fruit 
it bears. The old marriage system, still in 
force, of denying woman free access to wisdom, 
and unduly subjecting her, making her as far 
as possible an irresponsible creature, has, to be 
sure, peopled the earth, but the quality has 
been, and still is, poor. Man’s inhumanity to 
woman, the fact that he has denied the wife of 
his bosom and the mother of his children free 
access to all knowledge, forgetting that God has 
entrusted her with the awful responsibility of 
maternity, speaks for itself ! ” 

“Would you have the process reversed? 
The man subject to the woman ? ” jokingly re- 
plied Paul, who had never considered the sub- 
ject seriously — at least not until refused by 
Rae Raymond. 

No, uo, heaven forbid ! ” exclaimed Rae, in 


147 


a tragic voice and with an expressive shrug of 
her shoulders. “ No woman, I am sure, would 
wish for an instant to make of any man, and 
especially of her husband and the father of her 
children, a slave, or a toy ! The men whom 
women have worshipped have usually been 
manly, frank, brave, outspoken, lovers of lib- 
erty and ready if need be, like Christ, to die 
for the right.” 

“Well, well,” said Paul, shaking his head, 
but with a humorous twinkle in his grave blue 
eyes, “ I can only reiterate, that so far as I am 
concerned, the tie cannot be too indissoluble ; 
provided that I can secure Rae Raymond for 
my wife. Should I fail in winning my heart’s 
choice, and in a moment of temptation marry 
some one else, I might some day become a 
radical convert to your views.” 

“ Exactly ! then you admit that under cer- 
tain circumstances you might make a marriage, 
that you would wish to have abrogated? You 
have changed since we last talked this subject 
over, Paul Petrovitch.” 

“ Yes, I have changed, changed a great deal. 
Illness and confinement to my room for weeks 
together have given me time to think, besides, 
I have been reading deeply on the subject of 
marriage, past, present and prospective. Rae, 
I am quite willing to devise with you some kind 


148 


of heterodox marriage, since you will have 
nothing to do with the usual orthodox, conven- 
tional one.” 

As these words fell on Rae’s ear she looked 
up quickly from the book through which she 
was still glancing; putting it down on the table 
by which she was sitting she deliberately 
started toward Paul, who was seated on the 
sofa. He saw the look of deep affection on her 
face, and in her beautiful eyes. He rose at 
once, and before either were aware of their 
action, their arms were about each other and 
they had exchanged their first kiss. 

After that pledge of love and trust had been 
given, Paul was the first to speak. 

“ I am ready now to endorse any kind of 
marriage of love and liberty that we can de- 
vise in place of the old one. Indeed, I love 
you so well, so truly, that if I fail to make you 
the right kind of a husband and you wish to be 
free again, I will step back and out bidding you 
Godspeed though my heart breaks.” 

Silence too full for speech fell on these two 
after Paul’s last words. Presently, however, 
Rae looked up and said : 

“ You have the best heart in the world, Paul, 
and I think you will find me faithful and true. 
The most important of my reasons for insisting 
on having nothing to do with the orthodox 


149 


marriage, is that when I do a thing I want to 
start right; I am not willing to enter into so 
responsible a relationship by making irrational 
vows that stultify my sense of truth and right. 
Besides, I love liberty so well that I am quite 
sure if the angel Gabriel himself came to me 
and took me to the seventh heaven that we 
read of in our Bibles, and locked me in so that 
I could never get out, that I should at once 
begin to be unhappy and try to get out.” 

“ That reminds me of a book on Marriage 
and Divorce I was reading the other day, the 
motto on its first page being, 

“ ‘ Where they who are without would fain go in, 

And they that are within would fain go out. ’ ” 

Both laughed at the human nature disclosed 
in these lines, when Paul said : 

“ I will not detain you longer to-night, dear- 
est Rae. Please talk this matter over with 
your mother to-morrow, and I will call in the 
evening and learn the result of your conference. 
Tell her all, and perhaps we three can devise 
some way whereby she may become a mother- 
in-love to me as well as to you, monopolist ! ” 
Paul pinched Rae’s arm as he called her monop- 
olist, “ instead of the usual much despised, or- 
thodox mother-in-law.” 


150 


“ How inventive you are to be sure,” Rae 
laughed merrily. 

“And now goodnight Rae, dearest! ” 

Paul took Rae’s hand and held it a moment 
in a close, affectionate clasp, but did not offer 
her another kiss. And thus he left the bright, 
freedom-loving, progressive American woman, 
on her part hardly yet aware that Paul Petro- 
vitch had won, and that she was already bound 
to him by the weightless chains of love. 


ELEVEN 


“The more civilized the nature the more durable and 
exclusive does the marriage union become. . . , The 

fleeting connections supposed by some Free Love theorists 
are steps backward and not forward ; they offer no possi- 
bility of home, no education of the character, no guarantee 
for the training of children.” 

— Annie Besant. 

The next day, after breakfast, while Mrs. 
Raymond and Rae were in the garden enjoying 
a bath of sunlight and the chattering of some 
birds in trees close by, Rae, after a meditative 
silence, said : 

“ Mother, I told Paul last night that I would 
consult with you, to learn, if there was not some 
other way by which we could be married than 
the usual orthodox way.” 

“ If you must many, Rae, I could wish you 
to marry like other people, and that Paul should 
be the man, but why marry? Not long ago, 
I heard you say, laughingly, to one of your 
friends, that there was a good deal in Balzac’s 
advice, ‘don’t marry.’ Then he goes on to 
say: 


151 


152 


Who marries nowadays? Only merchants 
for the sake of capital, or to be two to drag 
the cart ; * * only brokers and notaries who 
want a wife’s dot to pay for their practice ; 
only miserable kings who are forced to con- 
tinue their miserable dynasties.’ ” 

“ Pretty good, mother. You have been com- 
mitting that precious piece of advice to memory, 
I see. Why do I marry? Because I am in love 
with Paul and imagine we could make our lives 
more effective together, than apart. Then I 
have become so used to having him around that 
I miss him wonderfully when he is away. But 
I would give him up entirely, rather than be 
tied to him in a strangling way.” 

Rae spoke the last words very emphatically 
and Avith knit brows. Mrs. Raymond looked 
dejected and spoke despondingly : 

“ I can never sufficiently regret that I was 
not able to keep worldly newspapers out of 
your hands. Otherwise you would never have 
been that dreadful anomaly we call ‘ The New 
Woman,’ with so much knowledge and so many 
queer ideas and wanting to do things in new 
ways. I fear that you will never be able to get 
along with any man in the marriage relation. 
You have your father’s masterful spirit. I could 
never have lived with him, I am sure, if I had 
expressed such ideas.” 


153 


Mrs. Raymond sighed heavily as she finished 
speaking. 

“ That is because father was one of the old 
style men, very positive and self-assertive, and 
brought up mostly on the Bible. At any rate 
he got his notions of the frailty of woman chiefly 
from it. Both portions of the Bible are hard 
on women, — the Old Testament with its fall of 
man because of the woman and its degrading 
polygamy ; the new with its asceticism, or in 
lieu of that, its utilitarian marriage.” 

“ It seems a little odd, m}^ dear, that after 
all you have said, that you should be going to 
marry a Paul.” 

Mrs. Raymond smiled a trifle maliciously as 
she made the last reflection. Rae was angry in 
a moment, and said with flashing eyes : 

“ My Paul is altogether a new Paul. I believe 
I would have killed the old theologic woman- 
enslaver outright; that is, as soon as I had dis- 
covered his sentiments in regard to my sex. 
So far as women are concerned, St. Paul re- 
mained an orthodox Jew to the end of his 
days.” 

“ I think it was you, Rae, who was deprecat- 
ing in Mrs. E. Lynn Linton, Paul Bourget and 
others the use of intemperate speech, the other 
day.” 

“Well, when an apostle deliberately writes: 


154 


‘ Let your women keep silence in the churches ; 
for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but 
they are commanded to be under obedience ; ’ 
‘ Wives submit yourselves unto your husbands, 
as unto the Lord . . . therefore as the 

church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives 
be to their own husbands in everything ; ’ ‘ Let 
the women learn in silence with all subjection ; ’ 
‘But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to 
usurp authority over the man, but to be in 
silence ; ’ and so on, he gives occasion for in- 
temperate speech. Had not Paul deliberately 
written these things and sent them to various 
churches, the Roman Catholic Bishops would 
never have been able to incorporate them in 
their Bible, and by their aid still further de- 
grade woman, and of course, thus check civili- 
zation. As disciples generally improve on the 
teaching of their leaders it is no surprise to 
learn from history that, ‘The Councils of the 
Mediaeval Church forbade the education of 
woman and declared her unfit for instructions.’ 
When this dictum was disobeyed by some kind- 
hearted nuns they were stoned in the streets. 
I suppose you are not aware, mother, that your 
beautiful early Christian fathers denounced 
women as ‘noxious animals,’ and ‘painted 
temptresses,’ ‘ necessary evils,’ ‘ desirable calam- 
ities,’ and ‘ domestic perils.’ The law followed 


155 


suit and declared the wife to be ‘in all cases 
and under all circumstances her husband’s crea- 
ture, servant and slave,’ and it is said this sort 
of thing went on up to the time of the English 
Reformation when the sky began to clear in 
woman’s behalf. I do not think Alfred E. 
Giles is out of the way when he declares that 
‘ the Bible, the Protestant sects, and monogamic, 
indissoluble marriages are the work, the out- 
growth and the offspring of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church.’ ” 

Mrs. Raymond was silent for a little while 
after Rae stopped speaking, then replied with 
her usual sigh : 

“The newspapers are surely to blame for 
your having such hard feelings toward the 
Church and its apostles and preachers. In my 
time we were taught chiefly out of the Word 
of God and never doubted but that it was God 
himself speaking through St. Paul, and we 
obeyed our husbands most dutifully, as old- 
fashioned children used to obey their parents. 
But did you not say a while ago that it was 
difficult to establish human ties upon a firm 
basis, or were you reading it to me, — and that 
the parental relation with its almost infinite 
tenderness, year after year, through the larger 
part, if not the whole of life, was the work of 
ages ? Then you went on to say, or read, that 


156 


the pre-matrimonial lover had at last been suc- 
cessfully established, and it now remained to 
evolve with more certainty the lover and hus- 
band combined. Surely Roman Catholicism 
has done a good thing to establish, as it has, the 
idea of permanency in the marital relation. 
Did not the Church take charge of marital mat- 
ters when the law was utterly relaxed ? when 
people married ad libitum and often, there be- 
ing in Rome a wife who was married to her 
twenty-third husband, she, herself being his 
twenty-third wife?” 

“ Yes,” said Rae, angrily, “ and then came the 
fanatical extreme of Church asceticism, still 
greater degradation of women and indissolu- 
bility of marriage for the masses. Lecky, in 
his history of European morals, tells us that 
‘ woman was represented as the door of hell, as 
the mother of all human ills, that she should be 
ashamed at the very thought that she was a 
woman, that she should live in continual pen- 
ance on account of the curses she has brought 
upon the world, that she should be ashamed of 
her dress, for it is a memorial of her fall, of 
her beauty, the most potent instrument of the 
demon ’ — pah ! rubbish fit to fool fools with.” 

“ Oh Rae, how like your father you talk and 
look when you are angry ! I have heard him 
go on about the preachers who upheld slavery 


157 


in their pulpits and by their pens, just as you 
are doing to-day about their waj^ of degrading 
women, as you call it. Still, I am sure that if 
they have worked some ill in the marital rela- 
tion, they have also done some good, indeed a 
great deal of good. No one now would think 
of venturing to marry more than three or four 
times at the outside ; even if in each instance 
their partners had died ; it would look scandal- 
ous, you know, so firmly has the idea of the 
sacredness and indissolubility of the tie been 
implanted in all countries subject to Rome, or 
which have been at one time under Roman 
Catholic dominion.” 

“ Oh yes, they have done some good,” said 
Rae, entirely out of patience, “ so has the 
devil.” 

Ordinarily Rae would not admit there was 
any devil in “ God’s world.” She often declared 
it was a bugaboo invented by the priest to 
scare women into subjection to man, and man 
himself into submission to priestly control. 
Just now, however, she was too angry to do 
other than say the worst things that her tongue 
could devise. 

Mrs. Raymond held her peace for a time, 
while Rae looked angrily off into the hazy dis- 
tance, quite unmindful of the beautiful morn- 
ing, the glorious foliage about them, and the 


158 


twittering birds. At length Mrs. Raymond 
ventured timidly : 

“ I think, dear Rae, their way about mar- 
riages was a pretty good one. We were sure of 
our husbands, our homes and our children. 
Then we had no newspapers to make us uneasy 
with much learning, and we gracefully submit- 
ted our wills to our husbands which ensured us 
harmony in our homes. There was no such 
thing as divorces in my day. Indeed, I never 
remember any one getting a divorce, here in my 
old home. But upon looking into one of the 
pamphlets you have been reading on ‘ Marriage 
and Divorce,’ I find it stated that the last cen- 
sus report shows that divorces in the United 
States increased during the nineteen years be- 
tween 1867 and 1886 nearly one hundred and 
fifty-seven per cent., while the population in 
the same time increased about sixty per cent. 
New Hampshire led the rest of the New Eng- 
land States in the matter of divorces, there be- 
ing in that state one divorce for every nine 
hundred and seventy-four marriages during the 
years 1880 to 1886 inclusive.” 

“ Well, mother, I suppose you think because 
South Carolina upholds indissoluble marriages, 
and frowns upon divorces, that she is a very 
sweet, clean, moral state. For my part I don’t 
have to look into the newspapers, only into th^ 


159 


faces of her people, to learn the moral status of 
her men. If I wanted accurate information I 
could learn it from her statute books.” 

“Well, the marriage business is a puzzling 
question, I am sure,” sighed the mother, quite 
taken aback. Rae was now beginning to cool 
off somewhat. She felt guilty that she had 
spoken so angrily to her mother, and she re- 
sponded : 

“You begin to understand, mother, do you 
not, why I am so set against the orthodox mar- 
riage with its immoral promises to begin with, 
and its mixed-up divorce complications, pro- 
vided the marriage proves a failure ? ” 

“ Dear Rae, you forget that while you turn 
your back on the requirements of the Church, 
you also treat the marital laws of the state 
with contempt. You do not propose to obtain 
any license, and will not even pledge yourself 
to a magistrate. I thought you always prided 
yourself on being such a good citizen, on never 
breaking any of the laws, and, on telling the 
truth about your possessions, in consequence 
paying quadruple the taxes paid by any man 
having the same amount of property.” 

“So I do want to be a good citizen, but I 
will not let the state meddle with my marital 
affairs, for it still clasps hands too closely with 
the Church in the marriage business, I will 


160 


never promise any state official, any more than 
I would a preacher, that I would live in the 
marital relation with a man for better or worse 
so long as he and I should live, for I am quite 
sure, that if I became convinced our marriage, 
for either of us, was for the worse, that I should 
bolt, as the politicians say.” 

“If you marry in some unlicensed, heterodox 
manner, people will call you a free-lover. You 
will not like that, Rae ; you are so proud.” 

A crimson wave passed over Rae’s brow and 
neck as the term “free-love ” greeted her ear. 
She spoke angrily again : 

“ For heaven’s sake, mother, do not soil your 
lips with that odious phrase. No ! I would not 
wish to be called a free-lover, because as the 
term is used now, it means one who either 
indulges in, or upholds the practice of fickle, 
irresponsible passion. Free love ought to mean 
that love for another which wells up freely 
from the depths of the heart. The divinity in 
us, however, is so ill-mixed or crudely developed 
that we cannot be sure that what seems fair is 
really so. Perjuring marriage ceremonies teach 
us to dissimulate, to be easy-promise makers 
and easy-promise breakers. Possibly in time 
this term of reproach, free-love, will be rescued 
from the mire and come to mean spontaneous, 
loyal love, not for a day, but for all time.” 


161 


“ I hope so,” replied Mrs. Raymond, scarcely 
knowing what she said, for she was observing 
how unusually pale Rae looked after the sub- 
sidence of the crimson flush. Then she added, 
“ Do not let us talk any more on this subject. 
You know that in the end your wishes are 
always mine, my dearest child. Ah, here 
comes George Washington with our mail.” 


TWELVE 


God made woman the responsible sex, par excellence, by 
endowing her with motherhood. Man, in his ignorance, 
has done his best to make of this woman a lay figure, so 
far as responsible action is concerned. Woman, through 
ignorance and physical weakness has accepted the cue thus 
given. The time is at hand, however, when civilized 
womanhood should accept her destiny. She should seek 
wisdom from all sources where it is to be found ; ponder 
deeply and act from her own sense of right. God meant 
her to use the faculties he gave her, not to be guided serv- 
ilely by those which He gave to somebody else. 

“She stands at the Gate of the New Spiritual Era, as she 
herself is the Gate by which New Life comes into the 
World.” — Elizabeth Hughes. 

The letters which George Washington handed 
to Rae, with one exception, proved to be busi- 
ness letters. This letter she glanced over, re- 
plying to the query of her mother: 

“It ’is a letter from Paul. When we have 
lunched and you have had your afternoon 
siesta, I will read it to you.” 

Little did Mrs. Raymond guess from Rae’s 
look and manner, the contents of that letter, 
and that it was the precursor of a crisis in their 
lives. It was well that she did not * whv should 

162 


163 


one be made acquainted a moment sooner than 
needful with intelligence calculated to wring 
the heart with apprehension and foreboding ? 

At least, so thought Rae who did not put in 
an appearance after lunch until Lotta came to 
her room, saying: 

“ Missus is awantin’ Missy Rae to come wid 
de letter.” 

When Rae came in, Mrs. Raymond was 
struck with the change which had taken place 
in her daughter’s countenance since they had 
left the dining-room two hours before. Indeed, 
the contents of Paul’s letter had so greatly dis- 
turbed Rae’s peace of mind that she was unable 
to command the outward expression of her feel- 
ings. 

Her usually glowing face was quite pale and 
bore marks of the conflict going on within. 
Her strong, though well-modelled features had 
a pinched look ; her brilliant eyes seemed sud- 
denly to have sunken in their sockets, and the 
light in them to have been half quenched. 

Neither did she enter the room with her 
usual eager, elastic step, but wearily. 

She had the appearance of a plant of sunny 
clime suddenly transported to one of frost and 
ice. 

Upon catching sight of her daughter’s face, 
Mrs. Raymond rose and met her ere she had 


164 


half crossed the room. Rae stooped and they 
kissed one another. 

Immediately after, Rae made a poor attempt 
at a laugh and remarked, in answer to her 
mother’s question : 

“ Oh, I am practicing the art in which you 
are such an adept, mother — and I am succeed- 
ing remarkably well, judging from the effect I 
have produced on you.” 

“ What art is that ? ” asked Mrs. Raymond, 
wonderingly. 

“ The art of borrowing trouble.” 

“ J ust like you, Rae, to laugh and try to 
cover up real trouble from me. Do tell me 
what is the matter, child? Has Paul met with 
a serious accident ? ” 

“ Not that I know of, but I will read you his 
letter, so that you need no longer practice the 
Yankee gift of guessing.” 

“ Dearest Rae : 

“ May I beg that while you are considering the im- 
portant question of our marriage that you will also give 
attention to another matter scarcely leas important? 

“You know that on my father’s side I am Russian; on 
my mother’s American ; that by virtue of my parentage I 
owe allegiance to two countries as different as the two parts 
of our Bible, the Old Testament and the New. On my 
part I have not forgotten that you, my love, are wholly 
American ; were born and bred in that phenomenal city by 
the lake, midway between the two great oceans, and at the 
cf'ntre of the most progressive civilization ux^on earth. 


165 


“Now, the question arises; where, when we are wed, 
shall we cast our lot? to which country shall we offer our 
united selves, our prayers, our hearts’ best love and most 
ardent hopes? 

“If we were poor and obliged to earn our daily bread, 
there would be no question about our choice, for America 
is still the poor man’s country, offering him the best re- 
turns for his labor ; and the finest, most complete culture 
for his children. 

“ But by the efforts of those who have gone before us we 
are both rich in this world’s goods, and do you not think 
the question for us to settle is, where are we most needed, 
in America with its population alive, alert, progressive, or 
in poor Russia with its millions of dead souls? 

“With the asking of the question, is not the answer 
obvious, dear Rae ? 

“Poor, sad Russia ! Often in the night as I wake, and 
sleep refuses to lull me into forgetfulness, I find myself re- 
peating over Gogol’s passionate words: 

‘“Russia! Russia! from the beautiful distant places 
where I dwell, I see thee, I see thee plainly, O my country! 
Thy nature is niggardly. In thee there is nothing to charm 
or awe the spectator. . . . 

“ ‘ No ; there is nothing splendid in thee, Russia, nothing 
marvellous; all is open, desert, flat. Thy little cities are 
scarcely visible in thy plains — like points, like specks. 
Nothing in thee is seductive, nothing even delights the eye. 
What secret, mysterious force, then, draws me to thee? 
Why does thy song, melancholy, fascinating, restless, re- 
sounding throughout all thy length and breadth, from one 
sea to the other, ring forever in my ears ? What does this 
song contain ? Whence come these tears and these sobs 
which find their echo in the heart? What are these dolor- 
ous tones which strike deep into the soul, and wake the 
memories? Russia, what desirest thou of me? What is 
this obscure, mysterious bond which unites us to each 


166 


other? Why dost thou look at me thus? Why does all 
that thou containest fix upon me this expectant gaze? My 
thought remains mute before thy immensity. This very 
infinity, to what forebodings does it give rise? Since thou 
art limitless, caust thou not he the mother country of 
thoughts whose grandeur is immeasurable? Canst thou 
not bring forth giants, thou who art the country of mighty 
spaces? This thought of thy immeasurable extent is re- 
flected powerfully in my soul, and an unknown force 
makes its way into the depth of my mind. My eyes are 
kindled with a supernatural vision. What dazzling dis- 
tances! What a marvellous mirage unknown to earth ! O 
Russia ! ’ 

“Perhaps you imagine, that Russia having abolished 
serfdom, and, to a certain extent having re-divided her 
land, is taking further progressive steps: by permitting to 
the people and to the press, liberty of speech ; by guaran- 
teeing political rights and privileges ; by reforming the 
caste system ; by improving the educational system 
throughout the country ; and by making radical changes in 
the system of taxation and tariffs- I beg of you, do not 
imagine this ! 

“Reaction is, and has been, for some time the order of 
the day. In Russia as elsewhere, wealth is becoming the 
dominant power. The insufficiency of the lots of land 
granted the muzhik and the lack of proportion between the 
revenue and the tax imposed have already brought the 
small cultivators back into dependence upon the great pro- 
prietor, and serfdom has reappeared in disguise. 

“Just as I perceive from similar causes a disguised 
slavery has appeared in your midst. But you have every 
means at hand to put down such slavery. 

“Why! give the Chicago women time enough and they 
alone, backed as they always are by their men, could make 
the whole world over and make it better. 

“Can you blame me that I mean to leave no stone un- 


167 


turned to obtain, if possible, the cooperation of two Chicago 
ladies to join me in bringing aid to lonely Russia? 

“Nu, my golubtchika, this long letter should come to a 
close, should it not ? 

“ Expect me early to-night. 

“ Very truly yours, 

“Paul.” 

“ That was a fine compliment he paid the Chi- 
cago women,” said Mrs. Raymond, reflectively. 

“Yes; but mother! how can I think of 
leaving for good our beloved city, our beautiful 
country, — the newspapers I ” 

Probably if Rae had racked her brains for the 
most convincing of arguments as to why they 
should remove to Russia she could not have hit 
upon anything which would have turned her 
mother’s thoughts so willingly in that direction 
as her off-hand exclamation “ the newspapers I ” 
What young American woman but will sym- 
pathize with Rae in this respect? Are not our 
bright, breezy, indefatigable, irrepressible, all- 
embracing, ever-with-you, newsy sheets, the 
pride, the pillar, and the safety-valve of our 
nation? Better far than any standing army, 
more efficient educationally than our magnificent 
school systems, — the press is the mouthpiece 
of the people urging humanity out of undue 
tutelage to effete laws and customs, and into a 
civilization completer than any dreamed of by 
the seers of the ages 1 


168 


“ Why, does not Russia have newspapers the 
same as we ? ” asked Mrs. Raymond. 

“Yes, Russia has newspapers, but they are 
by no means, the same as ours. Her press is 
not free ; only such facts reach the people as 
the government permits. It. is an autocratic 
press, not democratic, like ours. Furthermore, 
the papers are printed in the Russian language 
of which I can scarcely read a word. A pretty 
fix I should be in ! ” 

“ Well, you only have to give up the mar- 
riage. I do not see why you should care to 
marry, anyway.” 

Mrs. Raymond reached out for her fancy- 
work as she spoke. Rae rocked meditatively a 
moment or two before replying: 

“ Oh, as I told you, I love Paul, he is so 
good, and I think we might be better together 
than apart. Then — you know the old Greek 
commandment, ‘ Know thyself ’ — they tell me 
there is no school so well calculated to rid one 
of his illusions and delusions as the school of 
matrimony, no school which offers so severe a 
discipline,” Rae smiled as she spoke, “ and with 
all its drawbacks and imperfections, it graduates 
many sweet and wholesome people. Even 
some, who find it a failure so far as domestic 
bliss is concerned, declare the experience gotten 
by its means to be invaluable ; they feel them- 


169 


selves to be larger-hearted, more merciful in 
their judgments of others who may have blun- 
dered and fallen short in their aims and en- 
deavors.” 

“How can you be sure that Paul is worth 
making so many sacrifices for? Remember, he 
is half Russian. All men are charming as lov- 
ers, and for the most part, disagreeable as hus- 
bands.” 

“Well, I have improved every opportunity 
to find him out. I have been as indefatigable 
as that great critic, St. Beauve, says we should 
be in tracing up the character of an individual. 
I will read you what he says ; it is so good.” 

Rae left her mother a moment and returned 
with a volume in her hand. She soon found 
what she wanted, and began : 

“ ‘ It is very useful in the first place to begin 
at the beginning, and when we have it in our 
power, to take into account the birthplace of 
our author (or the man we think of marrying) 
and the race to which he belongs. . . .We 

recognize and, as it were, recover the superior 
man beyond all doubt in his parents, and es- 
pecially in his mother, his most direct and cer- 
tain parent; we find him also in his sisters, in 
his brothers, even in his children. 

“ ‘ When we have obtained all the infor- 
mation possible upon the origin, the immediate 


170 


parentage and near relations of an eminent 
writer (or prospective husband) an essential 
point to consider, after the chapter of his stud- 
ies and education, is the first group of friends 
and contemporaries among whom he was cast 
at the moment when his talent unfolded, when 
it filled out, so to speak, and assumed its man- 
hood. These early associations give it an im- * 
press which it never loses, whatever its future 
development may be. 

“ ‘Very great geniuses do without a group; 
they form centres themselves, and others gather 
around them. But it is the group, it is associa- 
tion, alliance, the active interchange of ideas, 
perpetual competition in presence of one’s 
equals and peers, which gives to the man of 
talent his attitude of mind, his development, 
which determines his value and weight. . . . 

“ ‘ It is impossible to try too many ways to 
become acquainted with a man — that is to say, 
one who is not quite divested of ordinary feel- 
ings and passions. . . . What were his re- 

ligious opinions? How was he affected by the 
sight of nature? What was his conduct in rela- 
tion to women and money matters ? Was he 
rich? Was he poor? What were his general 
principles of action? What was his ordinary 
manner of living? Finally, what was his be- 
setting sin or weakness?’ ” 


171 


“ Well, have you found out what Paul’s be- 
setting sin or weakness is?” 

“No, not yet. I think on the whole he is a 
new man. A new man, as I understand it, is 
one who has his heart qualities well developed ; 
the new woman has brain power; he feels as 
well as thinks, she thinks as well as feels. 
Paul says the new marriage will be based more 
on the affectional nature, less on the stormy, 
selfish, passional instinct. In the realm of the 
affectional nature he thinks our sex supreme, 
and accordingly, he thinks our sex should take 
the lead in martial matters.” 

“ Then he would have the woman propose — 
is that it? In that case we should have fewer 
marriages than ever. Men are so contrary.” 

“ As to the proposing part, men will always 
rush in where angels fear to tread.” 

“ You have got that wrong, Rae. It is fools 
that rush in, not men,” corrected Mrs. Ray- 
mond, glad to show herself wiser than her 
daughter. 

“ What difference does it make, mother, the 
terms are synonymous,” demurely replied Rae, 
yet in her joking manner. 

“Ah, after you are once married you will 
find out whom your husband considers the 
fool.” 

Mrs. Raymond sighed a little. She was 


172 


thinking how many stupid blunders she had 
made in the eyes of her gifted, brilliant hus- 
band. Indeed, his opinion of her at times had 
scarcely been higher than that of the original 
Adam in respect to his poor Eve. She said re- 
gretfully : “ Every man thinks his wife either 

foolish or bad, just as Adam did.” 

“ Eve should have bolted when Adam began 
to lay down the law in the Garden of Eden ; 
then there would have been no one to raise 
Cain in the world. Taking the testimony of 
the Catholic plagiarized Bible with its first 
God-joined couple, orthodox marriage does not 
seem to have been a howling success even in 
the beginning.” 

“ Oh such language, Rae, such language ! For 
all the world just like that I have seen in news- 
papers, whenever I have dared to peep into one, 
in order to see something I knew you had been 
reading. What is the world coming to ? flooded 
as it is by these dreadful modern papers, thick 
as flies, I see them everywhere; even at our 
church door, not long since, there was a woman 
just outside who handed us papers as we 
passed out. She had a funny poke bonnet on. 
The world is, I fear, approaching destruction. 
The last terrible days must be at hand. 

“ Yes, my child, I will gladly go to Russia 
with you. Anything to save you from the in- 


173 


flueiice of the newspapers ; I am sure they are 
of the Evil One, as our minister said the last 
time I saw him.’* 

“ Mother, I will warrant, that you were con- 
sulting him about me, how to keep me from 
this new tree of knowledge of good and evil. 
Well, it is time lost. The priest is not born 
who can scare me,” said Rae, getting angry in 
spite of herself. 

Rae’s eyes were a snapping black as she 
paused. Her mother spoke soothingly : 

“ Dear, have I not heard you condemn our 
‘ bloated Sunday newspaper,’ as you sometimes 
call it?” 

“ True, mother, sometimes. But on the 
whole our editors are brave, alert, progressive 
thinkers, not skulking cowards with their backs 
toward the present and their eyes glued on the 
past. No wonder we are ever falling into 
ditches — the women especially — when we in- 
sist on following those who are blind to the 
present.” 

“ Oh Rae, Rae ! I fear you will be everlast- 
ingly lost. We are all praying for you, dear, 
— the minister and the church.” 

This was too much. Rae got up hurriedly, 
the book in her lap fell to the floor with a thud, 
and she swept out of the room. She was too 
angry to speak. After a while, however, she 


174 

returned to say, with her prettiest glance, 
“ Dear mother, forgive me^ I have such a hor- 
rid temper.” 

And her mother replied : 

“Yes, child, I know; you came by it hon- 
estly.” 


THIRTEEN 


Orthodox marriage means perpetual ownership and tute- 
lage of the wife by the husband. Heterodox marriage 
should mean, for the twain, liberty, loyalty and equality. 

“ Perfect love is harmonious identity of spirit.” 

—J. Elizabeth Hotchkiss, A. M. Ph. D. 

Paul came early, as he had promised. He 
found the ladies seated in a rose-embowered 
veranda fronting the broad driveway. 

The evening was warm and languorous ; ex- 
cept at intervals there was no breeze ; then the 
gentle movement of the air could be detected 
only in the responsive rippling of the leaves 
above and around them. 

Mrs. Raymond and Rae, as usual, were 
dressed handsomely ; the mother arrayed in 
soft grey silk, set off with trimmings of a deli- 
cate pink. She wore pink-tinted opal jewelry 
set with diamonds. Rae was robed in a satin 
frock of lilac rose. The waist was enriched 
with a fancifully cut yoke wrought with lilac 
and green, jet and silk. Her hair was arranged 
high on her head, and she wore no jewelry ex- 
cepting a crescent diamond pin partially en- 
closing a glittering diamond star. 

175 


176 


Having greeted Mrs. Raymond cordially, Paul 
extended his hand to Rae. As he did so, he 
noted with a lover’s quick penetration the 
change which a few hours of deep inward con- 
flict had brought into her beautiful face. 

“ Do I see Russia in your changed looks ? ” 
he asked, with tender solicitude as he held her 
hand for a moment within his own. 

“ Nonsense ! Russia and I have as little in 
common as America and Rome. I must con- 
fess, though, that your wholly unexpected prop- 
osition has deeply affected me. It had not oc- 
curred to me that in the future you would wish 
to remain in Russia other than for a short visit 
each year, as has been your custom. I thought 
you were eager to become an American citizen 
— you have always spoken so highly of my coun- 
try and of its progress toward its high ideal.” 

“ You are right,” answered Paul, “ but after 
all, I seem to carry about with me a feeling of 
dislocation ; something is always tugging at me, 
drawing me back to that land whose friends — 
aside from the ignorant groping masses — are so 
few. By friends I mean those who love their 
country as they love themselves, and desire only 
her good.” 

“ Yes, I know, you wish to carry on the work 
your father began at what was, possibly, an in- 
opportune time.” 


177 


At this reference to his father, Paul’s eyes 
filled with tears, and he silently bowed in 
reply. 

Mrs. Raymond broke the expressive silence 
which followed, by saying : 

“ I should be glad, for my part, to go to Rus- 
sia as soon as possible. Anything to get Rae 
out of the reach of our demoralizing newspa- 
pers.” 

She looked up at Paul as she spoke, and he 
was obliged to say something ; accordingly he 
replied, mischievously: 

“No, our newspaper-fiend will not be able 
to read the Russian newspapers herself. She 
will have to let me read them to her, and I will 
take good care, Mrs. Raymond, to read aloud 
only such portions as are proper for a young 
lady to hear.” 

Mrs. Raymond smiled for a moment, and 
glanced away from the young people to the 
gathering twilight ; Paul in pa^ntomime wrung 
his hands and shook his head in a woeful, 
amusing maimer as much as to say: 

“ Have mercy, Rae ! I was in a close place. 
You know very well that I will read the papers 
to you, every jot and tittle of them, if you 
wish.” 

Rae smiled back, though she was thinking : 

“ Ah, after all Paul has a little underground 


178 


Nihilism in him. Possibly his father had more 
than a little, which was the reason why he was 
transported for life to a Siberian prison.” 

The pantomime performance over, Rae rose, 
saying : “ Let us go into the house, or else get 

our wraps, the air is growing damp.” 

“ I think we would better go in ; at least, I 
will do so. I have a cold already, and mean to 
retire early,” and Mrs. Raymond also rose. 

“Nu, then, let us go in and try that pretty 
duet once more.” 

The trio found their way into the old-fash- 
ioned Southern drawing-room. Before the vio- 
lin-tuning process began, and just as Rae was in 
the act of opening the piano, Mrs. Raymond 
bade the young people good-night, thinking, 
“ Poor Rae inherits her love for music from her 
father, from whom also, by way of heritage, so 
much else has come.” 

The duet was played to the immense satisfac- 
tion of both ; then Paul, who was a master in 
strategy, called for several other selections of a 
patriotic, soul-stirring cast. He was determined 
not to approach dangerous topics until Rae was 
in the best possible mood. He had observed 
what a great influence music had over her, and 
on this evening of all evenings, needed its aid. 
At the close of a singularly fine and thrilling 
(}uet^ composed by one pf Germany’s music- 


179 


mad sons, Paul observed how spirited Rae’s 
touch had become, how glowing and full of fire 
her countenance, and he said, entreatingly : 

“ Come, let us consider those two burning 
topics, Russia and heterodox marriage.” 

Quite passively Rae allowed him to lead her 
to the sofa. Paul, himself took an armchair 
opposite. He liked when possible to face Rae 
and note the effect of his words as he spoke. 
He meant to proceed warily to-night, for he 
had made up his mind to carry two points, first, 
Rae’s consent to go to Russia with him ; second, 
her consent to a Roman Catholic marriage. He 
came to the point at once by remarking with 
some trepidation, “ You received my letter to- 
day ; tell me, what do you think of it? ” 

“As I said when you first came this evening, 
the point of view presented was so new, so 
startling, as to move me deeply, — even more, 
to shock me. I do not know what to think.” 

“ Your mother seems pleased and quite ready 
to accede to my wishes.” 

“ Yes, my mother is sincerely orthodox. She 
looks upon this world as a sort of vestibule 
where we are to be converted to certain theo- 
logical dogmas in order that we may go to 
heaven when we die, and praise and glorify 
God everlastingly. Only in one respect, is she 
beterodo;^.” 


180 


“ What is that ? ” 

“ She will dress beautifully, even expensively, 
and enjoys all the luxuries of this life. But 
she is thoroughly orthodox in her opinions. 
She really believes that I shall be utterly and 
everlastingly lost if I refuse to accept the theo- 
logical teachings of the orthodox Church.” 

“ That is a pity ; for she must suffer keenly 
with anxiety concerning you. Do give her 
some surcease of pain by coming to Russia, 
and for a time dropping newspaper literature, 
except such as you obtain through me.” 

“ O, Paul, I cannot see that I have any part 
or lot in Russia. My friends consider me an 
ultra-American. Pray, what could I possibly 
do in autocratic, orthodox Russia?” 

“ My dear, a late Russian official has declared 
that in matters of religion, the orthodox Rus- 
sian church allows the amplest freedom of faith 
and practice.” 

“ How can that statement tally with what 
one reads in the Russian penal code? — When 
it is translated — I mean. Of course, most of 
us Americans are at the mercy of translators. 
This afternoon I was reading in regard to this 
very matter, in Title II., relating to ‘ Crimes 
against the Faith,’ and I came to the conclusion 
that there was little, if any freedom, allowed. 
Section 188 of the code provides, that if any 


181 


person shall leave the church (as I left mother^s 
church not a great while since), even to join 
another Christian denomination, he shall be 
turned over to the ecclesiastical authorities for 
instruction and admonition ; his minor children 
shall be taken into the custody of the govern- 
ment; his real estate shall be put into the 
hands of an administrator; and, until he ab- 
jures his errors he shall have no control over 
either. Section 196 declares, that all persons 
who shall be guilty of aiding in the extension 
of existing sects, or who shall be instrumental 
in the creation of new sects, hostile or injuri- 
ous to the orthodox faith, shall be deprived of 
all civil rights and exiled to Siberia, or to the 
Trans-Caucasus.” 

“We need have very little to do with the 
church ; you, nothing at all, if that seems best.” 

“In matters pertaining to everything else the 
same tyrannical regulations seem to exist.” 

“I think not now, Rae. But it is hard for 
Americans to understand Russian affairs. The 
two peoples are so different. In America, the 
masses, as well as the leaders, are adult in de- 
velopment and capable of self-government. In 
my country how different ! Not many years 
ago twenty millions of Russia’s peasantry, 
emerged from abject serfdom. Probably many 
millions of Russia’s subjects would to-day find 


182 


no fault with the present government, which a 
Russian writer, not long since, has declared to 
be ‘as natural and satisfactory to Russia as is 
the Republican form of government to the 
United States.’ ” 

“ Still, Paul, I am sure there must be some- 
thing wrong. No less a person than George 
Kennan tells us that ‘ for a period of nearly a 
dozen years Russian governors, governor-gen- 
erals and chiefs of police have had authority to 
issue imperative orders with regard to all mat- 
ters that concern the maintenance of public 
tranquillity, or the safety of the state ; to pro- 
hibit all public, social, or even private meetings 
and assemblies ; to direct the closing of all 
commercial and industrial establishments; to 
remove cases from the civil to the military 
courts whenever, in their opinion, such a course 
is necessary ; to arrest and imprison without 
judicial warrant and upon mere suspicion ; to 
make researches and seizures in all dwellings, 
factories, etc., without exception ; and finally, 
to recommend for banishment to Siberia any 
person whose character seems to them obnox- 
ious, or whose presence is regarded by the po- 
lice as prejudicial to public order.’ You see 
my chances for going to Siberia would be 
mighty good, unless I collapsed promptly into 
a ‘dead soul.’ ” 


Rae smiled brightly at Paul as she finished, 
disclosing her pretty pearly teeth. 

Paul was too deeply engaged in thought to 
return her smile; and to Rae the silence was 
becoming a little monotonous when he awoke 
from his reverie and said : 

“I propose, if you will allow me, to take 
yourself and your mother to my ancestral home 
and spend my time teaching and helping my 
peasants in their development as Tolstoi is do- 
ing. He seems to be getting along well and to 
be doing a fine work.” 

“But, Tolstoi,” said Rae, “is hardly a pat- 
tern for me ; he is abjectly orthodox, a non-re- 
sistant of the most slavish type. I am heter- 
odox and believe in eternal vigilance and 
eternal resistance to tyrannical encroachment. 
You admit in your letter that a new sort of 
slavery has put in an appearance in Russia, dis- 
guised as yet. I should think so, if what I 
found to-day in looking over some magazines is 
true.” 

Rae got up, stepped quickly into the library 
and came back bringing a Century Magazine. 
She began to read, apparently in the middle of 
the article by George Kennan: 

“ ‘ The evidence is not only complete, it is 
overwhelming, and no one who has attentively 
studied it can fail, I think, to see that millions 


184 


of the czar’s subjects are engaged, and have 
been engaged for years, in a desperate struggle 
for a bare existence. What, meanwhile, has 
been the attitude toward them of the Russian 
Government? Has it endeavored to lighten 
their heavy burdens by cutting down the army 
and navy estimates, and thus reducing the 
taxes ? Has it treated them with merciful con- 
sideration when they could no longer pay taxes 
that amounted, in many cases, to more than the 
whole net product of their lands? By no 
means! The taxes instead of being reduced 
have been increased; and have been collected 
with merciless rigor under the lash. “ Every- 
body knows perfectly well,” says the Russian 
publicist, Priklouski, “ that with us corporal 
punishment is employed by the police as one of 
the commonest means of collecting taxes ; but 
it is a disgrace, nevertheless, to our native land. 
The torture of the human body by authority of 
law exists as a fact before our eyes ; whilst we, 
conscious of our inability to prevent it, can only 
say with the permanent board of the Taurida 
Zemstro, ‘ It is hard to defend a punishment 
which kills a man’s honor and destroys his self- 
respect.’ ” ’ 

“I will not read the harrowing accounts 
given of the flogging of hundreds of heads of 
households. Supposing though we should be 


185 


put into prison for obnoxious conduct, we might 
be doomed to such prison life as is described a 
little further on. Listen, Paul. 

“ ‘ What astonished me most in the whole place 
was the married prisoners’ quarters, for in the 
large dormitory there were at least two hundred 
men, women and children, of all ages herded to- 
gether indiscriminately. No words can fitly de- 
scribe the scene. The evil faces, the babel of 
voices, the crying of children and clanking of 
chains, and above all the indescribable stench 
which seems inseparable from the Siberian 
prisons, all combined to make as hideous an 
impression as could be well imagined.’ ” 

Paul responded seriously : 

“I can’t say exactly what was my father’s 
fate ; we could never learn ; but I have un- 
derstood that cultured, highly-connected, edu- 
cated people, when exiled for political reasons 
to Siberia, are given comparative freedom and 
comfort.”' 

“ Ah, here is a person who differs with you 
evidentl3^ Further along in this same article 
I find from the pen of a certain Mr. Price ; 

“ ‘ In the case of a well-connected and edu- 
cated man sent from, say, Moscow, St. Peters- 
burg, or some other important city in Russia, for 
a long period, to some remote Siberian village 
the punishment must be a severe one. From 


186 


the little I have seen of these villages on our 
way up the river, I can imagine no fate more 
dreadful than to be shut up alone, among a lot 
of ignorant peasants, with no books to read 
and entirely out of touch and hearing of the 
civilized world. Better, almost, to be buried 
alive ! ’ ’’ 

“ Yes,” said Paul deliberately, looking 
straight into Rae’s eyes ; “ if we go to Russia 
bent on engaging in reform work, I suppose we 
must nerve ourselves to meet any fate.” 

Rae returned the look in her arch, dauntless 
fashion : 

“ You must not think,” she said,” that it is 
the danger ahead that frightens me, but rather 
my own unfitness for the work. Without free 
speech, a free press or the privilege of meeting 
together, I do not see how it is possible to carry 
on any kind of a propaganda, except as your 
Nihilistic compatriots were doing until sum- 
mary vengeance put them down. I have never 
in my life been other than straightforward. I 
could not imagine myself working as Russia’s 
great revolutionists have been doing, as for in- 
stance those wonderful young women, Sophia 
Perorskaya, Vera Zassulitch, Olga Lubolovitch, 
Alexandria Khoyerskaya, Sophia Bardina, Vera 
Lubolovitch, Anna Tarporkora, Eugenia Soo- 
botin, Vera Figuer and Maria Soobotin.” 


187 


Paul returned thoughtfully : 

“ I do not see any way to work as one could 
wish to work. That is the reason so many 
prominent Russian revolutionists have tried to 
help Russia from their places of retreat in 
other lands; but nothing of value seems to 
come of their efforts. It is likely the ‘ under- 
ground Nihilists ’ as you call them, did the best 
that could be done under the circumstances, — 
that is, they tried in secret and by stealth to 
plant the love of liberty in the hearts of the 
people. 

“ However, I do not ask you, Rae, to come 
to Russia and be wedded to her until death 
shall part us, and before you can possibly know 
whether you have really any part or lot in her, 
but I -only ask you to go there with me, look 
the ground over, and, if possible, make an 
earnest effort in that direction. Alone I can 
' accomplish nothing. I go back every year, 
and every »year in despair I return to England. 
Remember how friendly Russia has been to 
your country, how at a very critical time in 
American affairs, she sent a fleet to New York 
with sealed orders.’* 

“ Yes, I know ; it was when the ruling classes 
of England were openly hostile to the North, 
and there was every likelihood that Great 
’ Britain would aid the South. Ah well, Paul, 


188 


in consideration of that act of loyalty to us, I 
will go with you and see what can be done. 
We might, as you say, help to improve the con- 
dition of your peasants.” 

“We are really needed there,” said Paul, 
with emotion. “ The last time I was home there 
were many complaints of the man I have in 
charge ; he is a thrifty fellow, but inclined to 
be too hard. He needs watching. It makes 
me sad to think of my poor peasants ! I 
brought with me a touching bit of prose about 
these same poor creatures by E. M. DeVogue. 
Suppose you read it to me ; you read so well.” 

“ Ah yes, I have already come across it. Isn’t 
it a late translation ? but let us enjoy it to- 
gether. 

“ ‘ One might say of Northern Russia, that 
land ill divided from the waters, that it was a 
remnant of chaos forgotten of God. And now, 
imagine the effect of such a country upon the 
man thrown as a prey to its caprices. . . . 

You know, as well as I do, that no people has 
been more buffeted by more hands or harder 
hands, has undergone so many phases of 
servitude, domestic and foreign, or has been 
stained by so many invasions; you know that it 
has long drifted like a great waif between 
Europe and Asia. Stay ! I prefer to give you 
a scientific theory ; it will do as well as another. 


189 


To my mind, the Russian is the proudest of the 
soup he eats. You know it, the national soup ; 
you recall it with horror ; everything is found 
in it — fish, vegetables, herbs, beer, sour cream, 
ice, mustard, and what not, things excellent and 
things execrable. One can never know what a 
dip of the spoon may bring forth. 

“ ‘ It is the same with the Russian character, 
— it is a pot in which ferment confused in- 
gredients, sadness, mania, heroism, weakness, 
mysticism and common sense ; you may draw 
anything out of it at hazard, and you will 
always draw what you do not expect. If you 
knew to what this character can descend, if you 
knew the heights to which it can rise, and with 
what riotous leaps ! 

“‘You have just seen tlie peasants of my 
village, a hundred families benumbed for cen- 
turies upon this bed of snow, under the curtain 
of pines. You have said pityingly to yourself 
that this poor heap of men is hardly more thaii 
a prolongation of the forest as obscure, as im- 
penetrable, as deaf, to the great echoes of 
thought that delight and transform the soul. 
These primitive beings to the minimum of 
ideas, of needs, and of activity with which 
human creatures can be content, have seemed 
to you without interest. Very well, try to 
rouse these sleeping souls ; let a sentiment, a 


190 


flash of anger, an unexpected blow awaken 
them, and you will see surging out of nothing- 
ness enough martyrs, heroes, madmen to fill an 
epic.’ 

“Ah, that is fine. Yes, I will go with you, 
Paul Petrovitch. We will see what we can do 
to awaken your sleeping peasants.” 

“ You are the dearest woman in the world ! ” 
ardently exclaimed Paul, no longer able to con- 
trol himself. He rose, clasped Rae in his 
strong arms and pressed a passionate kiss upon 
her lips. 

“Heavens!” exclaimed Rae, as soon as she 
could breathe, “ Paul, I verily believe every 
word the Russian writer has said about the 
peasants, only from henceforth I shall include 
the rest of you as well. I had no idea you 
would develop into such an ardent wooer.” 

“Nu, now that you have waked one Russian 
soul, you are in duty bound to help his 
country,” he replied, gaily. After a pause, 
Paul added, quite seriously, “But there is an- 
other matter yet to consider, or rather to re- 
consider. Do you know, Rae, I really wish 
you could be orthodox as regards our marriage ? 
Since I have succeeded so well with one choice 
extract from an excellent writer, allow me to 
beg that you will read another by one of your 
pwn favorite authors, Junius Henri Browne»” 


191 


Paul dived down into his coat pocket as he 
spoke, and brought out a paper which he 
handed to Rae. Then he retreated to his arm- 
chair that he might have the pleasure of ob- 
serving her as she read. 

“ ‘ But under all circumstances it (marriage) 
is uncertain, even hazardous.’ (You see he 
agrees with me,” nodded Rae, stopping for a 
moment. “Yes, but read on,” said Paul.) 
“‘Very few realize, or can realize, what a ter- 
rible strain upon patience, discipline, character 
and humanity it is for two persons to be in the 
closest relation, year by year, to understand 
how custom may dull the finest sentiments, the 
tenderest emotions, the sacredest feelings. The 
sole way to judge fairly and completely of mar- 
riage is by actual experience. A thousand ex- 
amples will teach nothing. What appears the 
worst at the outset may prove the best ; what 
appears the best may prove the worst. Wed- 
lock defies augury ; it is continually an ex- 
ception to itself. One may blunder dreadfully 
in taking or not taking a wife ; which is the 
fatal step each man must determine for himself 
alone. Even if she were willing and glad to 
be his on any terms, he would not permit her 
to be other than his wife, knowing the feeling 
of public enlightenment on the subject. Love 
means esteem for and pride in the object loved^ 


192 


and a sincere lover will not, if he can help it, 
expose a woman to condemnation and social 
ostracism. Whatever may be thought of mar- 
riage abstractly, it is under existing circum- 
stances at least, a concession that should be 
made to society, and will be made by every 
man of honor.’ 

“Well?” queried Rae, having finished the 
extract that Paul seemed to have brought up 
with a special purpose in view. 

“You understand me, I am sure. Junius 
Henri Browne voices my sentiments in this re- 
gard. It is quite true that no matter how a 
man may view marriage abstractly, under ex- 
isting circumstances it is a concession which 
every man of honor should make.” 

“ But I will not permit you to make the con- 
cession, so far as I am concerned ; nor can I 
personally concede anything to tyrannous ortho- 
dox marriage vows. I will not soil my lips with 
them.” 

“Nu — I suspect you are right,” said Paul, 
slowly and meditatively. “ Doubtless the rigid 
orthodox vows have served their purpose, and 
should now give place to a less exacting mar- 
riage form. I think, though, Henry James was 
near the truth when he declared that in a ‘ dis- 
orderly condition of society, like that from 
which we have been slowly emerging, men of 


193 


wealth and power, men of violence and intrigue, 
would have laughed at the sacredest affections 
and rendered the family security nugatory, had 
not the Church fortified marriage by the most 
stringent safeguards.’ ” 

“ Possibly all that may be true ; yet I imag- 
ine it would be hard to tell how many crimes, 
secret or otherwise, have been the outcome of 
the indissoluble church marriage. Perhaps this 
consideration, together with their conscientious 
scruples against vows of any kind, infiuenced 
the Quakers, in repudiating the indissoluble 
marriage bond, so that for several generations 
they contracted marriages invalid in law rather 
than resort to the churches. But at last the 
legislature stepped in and provided for the 
civil recognition of their marriages.” 

“Yes, I know. Would you be willing to be 
married according to the Quaker mode?” 

“No, I am too heterodox even for that. 
Then, too, although their formula is sweet and 
simple, it is still a pledge that carries with it 
the idea that they are not to separate until 
death shall part them. Now, how in the world 
can any two people tell whether or not they 
can be loving and faithful to each other so long 
as they both shall live ? or whether they are 
never parted except by death? I was reading 
the other day about some mutual friend bring- 


194 


ing your saint Tolstoi and that charming writer 
Turgeneff together in the hope to make them 
good friends once more — only friends, remem- 
ber ; nothing like so intimate an association as 
marriage. And how did they act?” 

“ Tell me. I do not recall anything concern- 
ing the episode to which you refer,” said Paul, 
interestedly. 

“ Act ? Like two quarrelsome children who 
are better apart. I will get the paper and give 
it to you, verbatim. Shenstone is the mutual 
friend and it appears he, himself, wrote an ac- 
count of the affair. He says he brought them 
together after a state of chronic hostility, and 
placed Turgeneff on his wife’s right hand at 
the dining-room table and Tolstoi on the left.” 
Rae began to read : 

Knowing the importance Turgeneff at that 
time ascribed to the education of his daughter, 
my wife asked him whether he was satisfied 
with his English governess. Turgeneff began 
to sing her praises, and among other things 
said that the governess had asked, with English 
exactitude, how much his daughter might spend 
in charity. “ Now,” said Turgeneff, “ she wants 
my daughter to collect the ragged clothes of 
the poor and mend them.” 

“‘“And you consider that to be good?” 
asked Tolstoi, 


195 


“‘“Of course, it brings the charitable person 
closer to the poor,” replied Turgeneff. 

“‘“And I think,” said Tolstoi, “ that a well- 
dressed girl, who takes the dirty rags in her 
lap, acts an insincere and theatrical part.” 

“ ‘ “ I request you not to say so ! ” said Tur- 
geneff, with quivering nostrils. 

““‘Why should I not say what I am con- 
vinced of? ” answered Tolstoi. 

“‘I had no time to interfere,’ continued Shen- 
stone, ‘ when Turgeneff said, pale with anger, 

“‘“Then I will force you to silence by an 
insult.” ’ 

“Well,” said Rae, drawing a long breath, 
“ the upshot was that Shenstone ordered sepa- 
rate carriages for these two gentlemen, who 
though among the best of their kind, found 
themselves happier apart. Supposing now, Tur- 
geneff had been a woman and the wife of Tol- 
stoi, what chance for happiness would there 
have been for those two? And as they are 
persons incapable of committing an offence by 
which they could have become legally divorced, 
what would have been their fate ? ” 

“Oh, they would have made the best of the 
situation, and gotten along somehow,” said 
Paul, smiling. 

“Possibly, but it would have been a living 
torture for them, each conscious that they made 


196 


the other miserable, and yet must keep on do- 
ing so, until death separated them. No, I will 
not run the risk of spoiling your well-being and 
happiness, Paul Petrovitch. No orthodox mar- 
riage for me ! ” 

This last was said very resolutely, and Paul 
knew that he must either yield to Rae Ray- 
mond or give her up. 

“But how are we to get married in a heter- 
odox fashion? There is no precedent, is there? 
Marriage, so far as I can make out, up to the 
time the church took it in hand, was generally 
a family affair, except where it was the custom 
for the husband to steal his wife.” 

“ Yes, or a matter of sale. Then the woman 
became the property of her husband, instead of 
the property of her father.” 

“ And you are unwilling to accept me for 
your owner until death, eh? ” 

The idea of owning a bright, progressive, 
American wife must have struck Paul rather 
pleasantly, for after this last speech he laughed 
heartily. Rae simply smiled, saying presently, 
in a thoughtful manner, “ The Quaker ceremony 
seems the least objectionable to me of any that 
I know of; but as I told you a little while ago, 
it is based on the regular until-death pattern.” 

“What is the pledge they make?” 

“Like this, as near as I can recall ; ‘ Friends, 


197 


I take this my friend, A. B. to be my wife (or 
husband) promising through Divine assistance 
to be unto her (or him) a loving and faithful 
husband (or wife) until it shall please the Lord 
by death to separate us.’ ” 

“ I do not see anything wrong with that.” 

“ No ; because if they did not obtain Divine 
assistance, and found themselves unbearably 
antagonistic, they could separate without either 
one having perjured himself. Yet, now that 
the Quaker ceremony is a legal marriage, it 
does not make any difference whether the Lord 
withholds his help or not, that is, so far as their 
being able to obtain their freedom is concerned, 
after they are once married. The state takes 
no cognizance of the Lord’s doing in the mat- 
ter, but insists that they shall remain legally 
tied ; that is the law in this state. In other 
states the laws are more lax,' but in none of 
them can divorce be obtained by straightfor- 
ward people, who find themselves mismatched 
and incapable of descending to dishonorable 
practices, to free themselves from an unnatural 
and galling bond. As the law stands now, it 
puts a premium on baseness. I saw something 
on this very point in the ‘Westminster Re- 
view.’ Here it is. The article is a very able 
one, but I will only read you the latter por- 
tion. 


198 


“ ‘ It is one of the peculiarities of this anom- 
alous state of the law that it presses more se- 
verely on the upper classes than on the lower 
ranks of life, for if the infidelity be combined 
with the cruelty, divorce may be obtained. 
Now, amongst the most highly educated classes 
the man who treats his wife with physical 
cruelty is very rare. The higher the organiza- 
tion, the more refined and cultured will be the 
cruelty ; and it is easy to imagine different 
kinds of torture administered with a placid ex- 
terior and the most gentlemanly manner. The 
uneducated man, who strikes or kicks his wife 
in a passion, simply because he has been ac- 
customed to that style of argument from his 
youth, is very possibly a preferable husband to 
the polished profligate who with a smile can 
break his wife’s heart by polite cruelty. Yet a 
wife can never get a divorce from the latter; 
while the former, if his cruelty be combined 
with infidelity can easily be got rid of. Such a 
polished ruffian as Grandcourt in “ Daniel De- 
ronda,” for instance, could never have been 
shaken off, if he had not conveniently fallen 
into the sea ; and in real life such a fortunate 
accident would never have occurred.’ ” 

“ Nu, nu, that is all true. I agree with you 
most heartily. But how shall we go about our 
heterodox marriage ? ” 


199 


“Well, you know we Americans can’t do 
anything without speech-making. Suppose we 
celebrate our marriage with some speeches, 
music and the customary breakfast? ” 

“ Whom could we invite to make speeches 
upon so odd an occasion as an illegal marriage 
celebration ? ” 

Rae knit her brows for a few moments, and 
appeared lost in thought, then exclaimed : 

“ Well, I declare, I cannot think of a person 
we know, but who is a sleeping soul on the 
subject of marriage.” Then she said with a 
laugh, “ I am afraid you will have to make the 
speech yourself — preside at your own funeral 
as it were.” 

“ You forget, Rae, that I am only half Amer- 
ican, and what is more, never made a speech in 
my life. I would be sure to become embar- 
rassed and mix Russian and American phrases 
at a great rate. The people would think you 
were marrying a lunatic.” 

Paul clasped his hands as if the idea of his 
speech-making was quite impossible. 

“But,” Rae went on, mischievously, “you 
could certainly speak better than I. My father 
disliked women-speakers so much that I have 
always shirked speech-making. In this par- 
ticular I have respected his wishes. I don’t 
mind, though, giving a reason for the faith that 


200 


is in me to those who shall honor us by their 
presence.” 

“ Then it is agreed that we go to Russia ? ” 
exclaimed Paul, with animation, as if the het- 
erodox marriage matter was a secondary affair. 

“ Yes, and it is agreed that we marry in a 
heterodox manner?” added Rae. 

“ Surely, and let us have our wedding cele- 
bration as soon as possible. I am eager, now, 
to claim you as my own, and to commence 
work among my peasants.” 


FOURTEEN 


“ But we must not promise what we ought not lest we 
be called upon to perform what we cannot.” 

— Abraham Lincoln. 

On the day previous to the one upon which 
the marriage was to take place, Mrs. Raymond 
was surprised to see George Washington at the 
side veranda unloading a mass of flags of all 
sizes, from an immense banner capable of doing 
justice to the ample proportions of a state capi- 
tol, to a multitude of smaller ones ; together 
with a quantity of red, white and blue bunting. 

Mrs. Raymond was thunderstruck. What 
could Rae have in mind now ? Was she going 
to have a parade with flags on her marriage 
day? Paul had said so much about a hetero- 
dox marriage being something of a clandestine 
affair, that she had looked for anything but a 
celebration ; but perhaps Rae was going to 
have this array of flags and bunting packed for 
Russia? Mrs. Raymond knew that Rae was 
extravagantly patriotic ; still the quantity of 
these emblems at this time seemed out of place, 
and filled her with vague feelings of uneasiness. 

201 


202 


She started to go upstairs to find her daugh- 
ter and obtain an explanation. Rae was in the 
act of descending ; they met at the foot and her 
mother made haste to ask : 

“What in the world, Rae, are you going to 
do with all these flags and such quantities of 
bunting? You have enough for a Fourth of 
July celebration ! ” 

“ Glad to hear it, that ought to be enough to 
decorate the premises for my wedding. Don’t 
you think so, mother dear? ” 

Rae lifted up her mother’s chin as she finished 
speaking and kissed her in a dainty, pretty 
fashion. 

“ I was afraid you were going to have a pa- 
rade to-morrow with flags and placards, saying 
Heterodox marriage ! Heterodox marriage ! ! ” 

“ Nothing so bad as that. I should be afraid 
if we attempted so startling an innovation, that 
Paul and I would land in an insane asylum. 
People in these days have been placed there, I 
imagine, with less cause. No, I am going to 
have the house decorated mainly with flags and 
the red, white and blue bunting, instead of al- 
together with flowers and greens, the usual 
orthodox mode. A heterodox marriage of the 
liberty order should have liberty symbols.” 

Mrs. Raymond did not take part in the dec- 
orations of the place, which, however, went 


203 


energetically forward till a late hour of the 
night. Rae was the presiding genius, assisted 
by several young ladies, Paul Petrovitch, 
“George Washington,” and “Abraham Lin- 
kum.” Next morning Rae felt their work was 
a complete success, when her mother promenad- 
ing the length of the drawing-room observed : 

“ Why, Rae, this puts me in mind of Faneuil 
Hall, when I was there one time, attending a 
Fourth of July celebration !” 

Without stopping to reply, Rae smiled hap- 
pily and hurried away to give some final in- 
structions; she wished no delay or omission to 
mar that last hour at home. 

The young couple were to be driven to the 
depot soon after receiving the congratulations 
of their friends. 

They were going to Russia in a roundabout 
way, and would en route visit Chicago, and 
London, besides of course, New York. Rae 
had business in Chicago ; then, there was Retta 
and her wonderful baby to congratulate and 
kiss. As to Paul, before he left the new world, 
he wished to view to his heart’s content that 
most marvellous of American cities. It was 
arranged that Mrs. Raymond should meet them 
in New York and embark with them for Russia. 

An oddly mixed group assembled in the flag* 
bedecked rooms that afternoon. 


204 


Paul and Rae dressed in becoming travelling 
suits, took their places in the drawing-room, 
under what Rae called, a “ Liberty Bell.’’ It 
certainly was formed like a bell, though 
wrought chiefly of flowers instead of being cast 
in metal. 

Standing before the assembled company, Rae 
said : 

“ Kind friends : As neither Paul Petrovitch 
Alferiew, who has chosen me for his wife, nor 
I, who have chosen him for my husband, are in 
sympathy with the marriage rite as adminis- 
tered by church and state, we are compelled to 
adopt a simple home celebration of our mar- 
riage without the assistance of either minister 
or magistrate. Should the state at any time 
revise the present marriage rite and no longer 
require us to 'promise what we cannot he sure of 
fulfilling^ then we shall hasten to be married in 
due legal form. 

“Doubtless we should not hope to receive 
congratulations on so heterodox a step, but, if 
thus far you believe in us, believe that we, ac- 
cording to our light, are striving to be true, to 
do the right as we understand it; then we shall 
hope to receive your cordial Godspeed as we 
take our departure for Russia. We go there to 
make us a home and to ‘ cultivate the land,’ in 
the Lavretsky sense of the word. 


205 


“As Paul Petrovitch asks for some little 
form in connection with this heterodox marriage 
celebration, I have complied with his wishes, 
and we shall now proceed in imitation of the 
Quaker mode. He will repeat his part ver- 
batim, only omitting the phrase ‘ by death,’ be- 
cause we think God sometimes separates mar- 
ried people before they die. I being heterodox 
will take the privilege to vary my part.” 

When Rae had finished, Paul clasped her 
hand in his and repeated solemnly : 

“Friends: I take this my friend, Rae Ray- 
mond, to be my wife, promising through divine 
assistance to be unto her a loving and faithful 
husband until it shall please God to separate 
us.” 

Then Rae said : 

“ Dear friends, in the hope that our lives may 
be more complete, and that we may be enabled 
to render better service to God and to Human- 
ity, I now take Paul Petrovitch Alferiew to be 
my husband, and will endeavor to be unto him 
a faithful, loving wife, so long as it shall be to 
our mutual happiness, and so long as we are 
one in tlie sight of God.” 

Whether it was because the action of the 
young couple opened a rift in the clouds which 
yet overshadows human freedom, through which 
those present could better see her fair proper- 


206 


tions, and look forward to a time when people 
can be trusted to marry, as they are now 
trusted to serve God, according to the dictates 
of their consciences ; or whether it was solely 
because of their personal friendship, for these 
two, certain it is, that no orthodox couple ever 
received warmer congratulations than did Rae 
Raymond and Paul Petrovitch Alferiew. 

* * * * - 3 ^ ♦ 

Five years have passed and in that time civ- 
ilized nations have come more than ever to re- 
alize that if Russia were to ally herself with 
any great power, these two could overturn the 
political world. 

In the event of any such coalition, Russia 
could command an almost irresistible body of 
fighters. Once aroused these hordes are capa- 
ble of the wildest fanatical excesses. Some of 
her sons appreciate that in these ignorant, pow- 
erful multitudes lurk the possible seeds of Rus- 
sia’s destruction. Hence numbers of noble- 
hearted, far-sighted Russians for love of their 
country, are devoting their unselfish lives to 
educating and elevating the childlike people of 
the soil. 

Not the least among these teachers, are Paul 
Petrovitch and his devoted wife, devoted not 
only to her husband, but to his country, her 


207 


country. They have not revisited America, but 
those who have been their guests on the vast 
Russian estate, report that in no country could 
servants and master be more mutually trustful 
and trustworthy. It is upon this basis that 
they meet in their patient attempts at better- 
ment. If the work of the teacher is hard, how 
much harder are the efforts of him who is learn- 
ing ! This, Paul Petrovitch and his wife never 
forget, and such has been their tactful kindness 
that their people are coming to have patience 
and a love for the right, and to know that there 
is no royal road to improvement. 


THE END. 


ij9<^s for ^i^deauorer5 

/ Compilation of Scripture and Verse 


Mrs. Emma Halsey Huntting, Author 

CLOTH, 16 mo, 50 Cts. 


This is a happily conceived little book, full of 
good sentiments and practical lessons. — Religious 
Telescope. 


THE HETERODOX MARRIAGE 

OF A NEW WOMAN 

By MARY IVES TODD 

CLOTH, 12mo, - - - - ; $1,00 


An up-to-date bright, breezy novel, presenting the mar- 
riage vows and relations from the standpoint of Rae Ray- 
mond, a woman of modern ideas. The w man of the old 
school is well depicted in Rae’s mother. Both are devotedly 
attached, and both have widely diverging views upon what 
a woman should or should not agree to undertake in assum- 
ing the marriage relation. Mrs. Todd has contrasted her 
characters skilfully, and whether we agree with her argu- 
ments or not, they are made vividly interesting as the sincere 
opinions of the bachelor maid. 


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